Matsuri, Sari, and Ittetsu: Team 5
by Keomi-Sage
Summary: 3 newly made sand genin live their lifes, full of love, fighting, and sorrow.
1. Chapter 1

**SUMMARY**: Matsuri, Ittetsu, and Sari are put in a team as freshly made Genin of the Sand, too bad they kinda hate each other– plot revolves mostly around Matsuri

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto; it wouldn't be as good if I did

Matsuri, Sari, & Ittetsu

Team 5

CHAPTER 1: Team Matsuri!

Matsuri stood in front of Mukade and Maki, trying to smile, though she was screaming on the inside. Everyone knew by then that she was Gaara's only student, and, ever since he'd become Kazekage a month ago, they'd all expected only the best from her.

She closed her eyes and summoned her chakra. "Kage no Bushin!" she murmured. Opening her eyes, she bit her lip nervously, but relaxed as she saw 4 perfect copies of her likeness. Fighting back a non-ninja-like squeal of happiness, she looked back to her homeroom teacher Mukade, and then to Maki, who smiled encouragingly.

"Very well executed." Mukade said, smiling happily. "I see working with Lord Gaara has been completely to your advantage."

Matsuri nodded. She couldn't help but frown whenever people called Gaara 'Lord Gaara'. Sure he was Kazekage, but it had been strange seeing them all warm up to him, and then gradually his time slip away from her training, then for the last bit of her training as an academy student, she had to be taught by a snobby chunin with a drinking problem. Anyway, she was glad when Maki handed her a gray Suna headband with the familiar Suna symbol on it. She dashed out of the room, hugging the thing to her chest.

Suddenly she crashed into a tall boy with tan skin and sandy brown hair. He looked about her age, and she thought she'd seen him at the academy when they were younger during free period. She remembered; he was the boy with the name that meant stubborn.

"Ittetsu! Watch where you are going!" she growled, crossing her arms over her chest. It was a habit she'd picked up from training with her sensei.

"You watch where _you_ are going!" he shot back angrily.

Matsuri glared at him, and Ittetsu glared back until Maki poked her head through the exam room. "Ittetsu, get in here. Matsuri, aren't you supposed to be outside with your parents?"

Matsuri was about to open her mouth, but she chocked on her words. Ittetsu squinted at her, but shrugged and walked on, looking confident. Matsuri was sure he had a pair of parents waiting outside for him when he passed the genin test.

She didn't.

She still remembered how her parents were killed by countless weapons, but under Gaara's tutelage, she'd come to terms with her phobia of weapons. And she was a genin!

Pushing the sad fact of not having parents away, she ran through a back entrance in the academy and raced home to her small sandy apartment in the lesser parts of town. She always tried to get there early, because she knew of the people who walked those streets at night. No village, even the most honored, wasn't without the scourge, the black sheep, the one mothers steered their children from.

Matsuri had had to learn the lessons of her village without her mother and father. But what she learned and how she learned it convinced her to believe it all made her stronger.

In her small apartment, she kept the few things she had as neat as possible. Her little table sat next to the window, the chopsticks laid against an embroidered placemat that her mother had made. Her favorite cup with the suna symbol on it on the corner of the placemat as well. Her kitchen was sinkless, for if she wanted water, she'd have to go to her apartments storage. That was the bad part about living three days worth in the dessert- things were hard to get. Her bed was a fold out from the small bouncy sofa she owned. She often came home from training and forgot to set the bed back up again, so often times she woke up with colds: it always was surprising to her whenever it came to nightfall just how _cold_ such a hot dessert could get.

She ate a quick meal of rice and sand dumplings, each of which was just a bit dry, and dressed for bed. The next day would be orientation. She couldn't wait.

Sari pulled her knees to her chest as she sat outside in the training field. She sat in a corner under the shade of the walls. She barely cared that she when she got up she' probably have to brush her but off to get the sand and dust off her skirt.

Sari, with her long dark brown hair, happy eyes, and new status of genin, felt great. Yet she sat in the corner.

It was an unusually hot day, and many of the others took refuge to the shade. A couple of hot shots tried to stand in the middle of the field in the hot sun. One even passed out for a minute or two. Well, that was what they got.

She sighed, brushing her bangs out of her eyes, only to feel the cold metal of her new headband. She smiled, and giggled to herself. She couldn't believe that she, Sari, was a genin.

Sari was more of a girly girl, not really cut out to be a ninja. Yet her parents were jonin, and expected her to succeed. The only good ninja points she had was she had a thing for chakra control, and she was good with a kunai.

She looked up at her fellow Suna Genin. She just hoped that whoever amongst them were her future teammates, would except her for her less than perfect kuniochi self.

"Is that seat taken?" Sari looked up to Abiru, a cute, curly haired genin.

Smiling she scooted over and let Abiru sit down beside her. The ninja leaned in and planted one innocent kiss on Sari's lips. They'd been going out for a few weeks, and for Sari everyday was better than before.

Abiru smirked, his eyes glancing to a boy who stood stubbornly in the sun, glaring at them. Sari turned to the boy. She didn't know his by heart. They must have been in separate homerooms.

"Who is that?" she asked. Her eyes met the strangers, and she looked away quickly, embarrassed and uncomfortable that the boy was staring at them.

"Nobody." Abiru sing songed, holding her hands. "Now, lets talk about us!"

Sari blushed and nodded. "Okay okay!" she said.

"What happens if we don't get into the same team?" he asked in vulnerable way that made Sari smile. "I don't want you running off with some jerk!"

Sari giggled. "Of course I wont." She kissed his cheek, leaning into him. "You've been way too good to me, Abiru!"

Abiru smiled, resting his chin on the top of her head. Looking at the boy who stood in the middle of the field in the hot sun, some how suppressing sweat, he smirked.

"You had you're chance, Ittetsu." He sneered.

Sari opened her eyes and tugged from her boyfriends embrace. "Oh, wasn't that boys name Ittetsu, or something like that?" she asked, glancing at the boy who had turned away.

"No!" Abiru lied, smiling coily. "He'd nobody. Nobody nobody nobody!"

"Okay okay!" Sari said, giggling.

Mukade smiled and walked out onto the training field. Matsuri clapped her hands under her legs so they'd stop shaking. This was it!

"Team 1: Korobi, Nae, and Sekka!" he announced happily. Matsuri watched as the three grouped up.

_Lucky_, Matsuri thought bitterly. At least they didn't have to wait long.

She waited as the people she'd known for years were grouped off.

"Team 4: Tomari, Yaoki, and Sajin." Mukade announced. Team four grouped up.

"Team 5: Ittetsu-"

_What? How in the world did that stubborn cactus-up-the-butt become a genin?_ She thought.

"…Sari."

_Sari? Her too. Man, Gaara-sensei is going to be upset to have so many bad ninja in his village!_ She sighed. She wanted to see him again, as a newly made genin of Sunakagure! _Well, I'd hate to be on team 5._

" And Abiru." Mukade finished, smiling brightly.

Sari and Abiru smiled at each other in the corner of the training field. Ittetsu looked pale and unmoving.

"Ittetsu, Sari and lover-boy, eh?" Matsuri mumbled. "They won't last long." She sniffed and smiled.

"Oh, wait. Sorry, Abiru. I meant to say Matsuri." Mukade laughed loosely. "Team 6 is Abiru, sorry, again, Nejiri, and Isago."

Matsuri looked to Sari, who wasn't even paying attention to either her or Ittetsu. Instead the pretty kunoichi was pouting at Abiru. Ittetsu had regained some of his color, and turned to Matsuri, a tiny look of relief coloring his face.

She frowned. She still didn't like him. Ittetsu frowned back before turning away to talk to one of his friends who hadn't been assigned a team yet.

Matsuri sighed. "It looks like you aren't in Team 5. Perhaps Team Matsuri." She smiled softly, wondering who her Jonin leader would be.

**Sorry about misspellings: if you have no clue who all of these characters are, go to Naruto wiki: half the names are picked randomly without me even looking at the character – and Matsuri is best seen in the last arc of Naruto episodes 216-220, and Ittetsu and Sari are seen in episodes in shippuden 32, though Sari and Matsuri are in stuck up fan girl mode, making a lot of people hate them, Ittetsu is the one Matsuri bitch-slaps (more or less) and punches and pushes in the face. Funny stuff. – Keomi~Sage **


	2. Chapter 2

**SUMMARY: **Matsuri, Sari, and Ittetsu finally get to meet their Jonin leader, too bad he's sort of nuts (hinted GaaMats)- plot revolves mostly around Matsuri

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto; I'm not that talented

Matsuri, Sari, & Ittetsu

Team 5

CHAPTER 2: Crazy-Butt Jonin

Gaara sifted through the available Jonin for the new genin teams. He'd stopped to ponder especially hard for Team 5's leader. He new that Matsuri, his former student, had been made a genin, and he intended on congratulating her in person, once he got the time. He just wanted the best for her.

He knew of a few jonin who'd been graduated to genin then chunin and finally jonin, top of the food chain, but he still didn't want to cheat any other teams of a better Jonin leader because he favored Matsuri's team. Or rather… Matsuri herself….

Sighing, the redheaded Kazekage shifted through some other files until a face popped up. He looked at the jonin's file, his abilities.

"Perhaps…." He murmured, looking from the jonins file to the new Team 5's file.

…K~S

Matsuri sighed, finally giving in, and walked with crossed arms over to Sari, who still sat moping in the corner.

"Oi!" she said as she stood in front of the pretty kunoichi. "I'm Matsuri." She stuck out a hand, but Sari only looked away, sniffing pitifully, before looking back, attempting a smile.

"I'm Sari. It's nice to meet you." Sari stood up and bowed awkwardly. "I don't recall seeing you around much, at least, we never talked." She put a perfect finger to her chin. "You were student to our new Kazekage." She smiled wide then. "You must be powerful. I think I remember seeing you practicing on this field during free period. You're really good."

Matsuri blinked. This girl sure knew how to sweet-talk. But Matsuri could tell it was genuine. "Uh, thanks, Sari."

Sari smiled. "Sorry I was a downer. I just really wanted to be with my boy friend, Abiru!"

Matsuri smiled. "Oh, I understand."

"Well, it seems you two are getting along nicely."

Matsuri rolled her eyes and turned to Ittetsu. He was looking at the sand walls, angry and unapproachable.

"Stop pouting. We're going to be a team." Sari said, walking straight up to the bigger ninja. She turned to Matsuri, her face softening. "Right, Mats'? Even if we aren't with who we want to be?"

Ittetsu stiffened and Matsuri blushed. Could Sari tell she'd mocked them both in her thoughts? Matsuri looked down at her black, Suna-style shoes, feeling guilty about mocking Sari. The pretty kunoichi was handy with a kunai, and her chakra control was almost as flawless as her own.

"Yes!" Matsuri said.

"Well, okay, then." Ittetsu grumbled.

"Okay okay!" Sari cheered, clapping her hands together.

…K~S

Hayate Tanaka gazed down at the 3 genin in the corner of the training field. They seemed to be trying to get along, but the group had a tension inside it. Tricky stuff.

Kayate was a tall, thin jonin with black hair and gray eyes. His forehead protector crossed over his right eyebrow and the top of his right ear. He smirked as Sari, the one with the darkest hair, tried to hug Ittetsu, his only boy of the group, and the boy froze up. Matsuri laughed. Matsuri, the Kazekages' old student. He expected a lot from her. Not that the others wouldn't be worth looking at every once in a while. Ittetsu was good at taijutsu, and had a thing for releasing massive amounts of chakra, even if it wasn't very controlled. He'd also heard that while Sari wasn't physically strong or fast, she was pretty smart and good at chakra control and weapon handling.

Overall, his team might just make it.

…K~S

Ittetsu stepped back from Sari right as a man jumped behind him. Surprised by the sudden drop in, he put up his hands, ready to defend like they taught him at fighting practice. Matsuri followed his lead, reaching for her trusted weapon, the johyo (rope javelin). Sari gasped, the last one ready for the attack, but quickly, jumped out of range and set up her guard. Ittetsu watched as the enemy jumped at him. The boy quickly rolled out of the way, reaching for his kunai from his weapons holster. He threw it, the throw heading straight for the enemies leg, but the stranger dissolved into a log that clattered to the ground. Matsuri jumped back, her favorite weapon ready. She heard a faint noise behind her, and struck out, happy to have her johyo wrap perfectly around the enemy.

She reached behind her for a polished kunai, and stabbed it forward. "Take this!" she crowed as she stabbed the enemy.

Smoke dissolved again to show a tangled and punctured log.

Matsuri made an indignant noise. She'd _thought_ she'd had him. Apparently not.

At the sound of a very feminine squeal, Ittetsu and Matsuri turned around to see the enemy had his arm under Sari's chin. She thrashed about her brown eyes wide. Ittetsu lunged to help her, but before he could do anything, Sari bit down hard on the enemy's arm. The smoke accompanied her not-so lethal attack.

Matsuri ran up to Sari, helping the girl up. "Are you okay?" she asked. Ittetsu stood guard next to the girls, but he couldn't help but look back at Sari.

Sari nodded before standing back up. "I think we're okay, though. It's not an enemy, or at least, the man isn't an enemy from somewhere else."

Ittetsu frowned. "How do you know?" he asked, still ready.

"I just do." She murmured.

"Very good." A man, the enemy, said. He walked tall and wide, his pale hair in a Rock Lee style bowl cut. In a puff of smoke, the man changed.

This new man wore a Suna headband and black hair and gray eyes. He wore the Sand's flack jacket over a black shirt and dark gray pants. Gauze was wrapped over both his arms and his neck.

"I am Hayate Tanaka. Team 5's jonin leader." He smiled, proud. "You all were very… prepared when you fought…" his eyes flickered to Sari who was blushing. Maybe she hadn't been prepared, but the others were. At least she had some sharp teeth.

"I'm Matsuri." The short brown haired kunoichi announced said, bowing respectably. Ittetsu and Sari followed, murmuring their names.

"Perfect, now that we are all introduced, how about I give you all gifts, eh?"

Ittetsu frowned, raising an eyebrow. "Gifts?"

Sari looked to Matsuri, but Matsuri shrugged.

Kayate nodded, handing them a rock, really a pebble.

Ittetsu looked at the little rock that their sensei had handed them. "A single rock for all 3 of us?" he mumbled. "That's stupid."

Without warning Hayate hit Ittetsu over the head. "It's not stupid. Now make the pebble fly into the air using your combined power. If you can do that, I'll pass you." Hayate walked to the wall and leaned back, smiling. He was pleased. And perhaps a little crazy.

…K~S

Matsuri looked at Sari and Sari looked at Matsuri then Sari looked at Ittetsu and Ittetsu glanced at Sari then blushed and looked quickly at Matsuri and then Matsuri glared at Ittetsu so Ittetsu glared back and looked at Sari and Sari looked at him with confusion and Ittetsu blushed and looked back at the rock.

"This is stupid." He repeated before getting hit in the head by a chunk of wall. "Well it is." He mumbled.

"Are we supposed to use our combined chakra, send it to the palms of our hands at the same point to send a magnetic current of chakra through the hands and to the rock thus making a gravitational force and send it rocketing up with precise chakra control, stamina, and patience?" Sari asked, sounding puzzled.

Matsuri looked at Sari quizzingly before sighing. "You mean to say target a spot with our chakra to send the rock up?"

Sari giggled, blushing faintly. "Um… more or less."

Ittetsu sniffed. "No offense, Sari, but that's kinda stupid." He got hit in the head with a shoe. Holding back a curse he continued. "Why cant we just through the rock up?"

"No," Matsuri said. "I don't think it'd be that simple."

"Yeah, me either. Seems silly, if this is what will determine our genin-ship." Sari said.

Ittetsu kicked the ground with the toe of his shoe, stirring up a cloud of dust. "Yeah, I guess so."

Matsuri gritted her teeth. "You're only being lenient because Sari said it!"

Ittetsu blushed, and looked down, hoping Sari didn't see.

"Okay okay!" Sari said, trying to look confident and determined. "Let's just try to pinpoint our chakra."

"I don't know how, though." Ittetsu mumbled. He wasn't the best at chakra control. He _could_ push all of his chakra out or into a jutsu, but his chakra wasn't stable enough to have him climb up trees or walk on water.

"That's okay, Ittetsu." Sari said, taking his hand. She placed one of her's on top of his and then nodded for Matsuri to put hers on top. "Matsuri, put the rock on you're hand and lets start, okay okay?"

"Sure." Matsuri said, putting the rock into place.

"This is stupid." Ittetsu muttered. The other shoe was thrown at him, but he was already too busy concentrating to notice. He sent up a surge of chakra, and could see Sari receive his massive outburst of chakra, then channel it and send it through Matsuri's palm. For a heart stopping second, the rock stayed stationary and nothing happened, and then the rock began to shake.

"This is it." Matsuri whispered, her eyes intent on the rock, willing herself not to mess up.

Ittetsu glared at the rock, wanting it to move. He wanted to be a ninja! Pushing harder to give more intense chakra to Sari, he watched as the chakra shot through the girls' hand and hit the rock, sending it up by about a yard.

The three cheered, hugging each other, not even caring that they barely knew each other.

"I don't see why you're all so happy." Hayate said after a moment.

The three let go of each other and pivoted to face Hayate.

"B-but we did it." Matsuri said, the weak voice she'd had at the beginning of her ninja training crawling back into her voice.

"No. That not what I meant." Hayate said.

Sari, who was by far the nicest of all of them snapped. Her face went red and she let out a gasp of confusion and anger. "Then what were we supposed to do you baka?"

"Through the rock up." Kayate Tanaka said, smiling a cat like grin.

Sari's eye twitched, and Ittetsu laughed softly. "Oi, didn't I say that from the beginning?"

Matsuri closed her eyes before slugging Ittetsu in the stomach. She walked over to where the rock had fallen, put their hands back on top of each other, and they pushed up, the rock flying half heartedly up before falling noiselessly back down.

"CONGRADULATIONS! YOU PASSED. TEAM 5 STARTS IT'S FIRST MISSION TOM-"

"CAN IT!" Sari growled, (a little disrespectfully too, but Hayate Tanaka didn't mind).

…K~S

Matsuri skipped up to the Kazekage residence and knocked, hesitant at first, but enough for someone to hear.

Kankuro answered, ushering her in without much of a _Hello_ or _Good Evening_. He told her Gaara was on the roof, and she wasn't surprised. The roof of the Kazekage residence was flat and overlooked much of the village.

When she climbed to the roof and saw Gaara she walked straight to him, bowing slightly.

"You assigned me a nut for a jonin leader." She said, resting her head on his shoulder. "But he's good in a fight."

Gaara looked down at her. "I'm glad."

She smiled softly before looking out at the village. Under the silver moons glow, it looked very different than it's tan look in the daytime.

"I like my team." She finally admitted.

"I'm glad you do." Gaara said smiling. "And I'm sure you'll love your assignment for tomorrow."

"What is it?" Matsuri asked, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder, and in return he wrapped an arm around her.

"I don't know." He admitted. "They are always a few cats that need rescuing. Elders that need be taken care for. And baby sitting and working at the green house to water the plants."

"Eh, Gaara?" Matsuri began.

"Yes?"

"Isn't there anything _cooler_ I could do?"

Gaara thought about this. "You could help bring materials to the job sites for the new constructions."

"Um, that wasn't quite what I meant…."

**Aw, poor Matsuri. She just doesn't seem to understand how things work. Hopefully I can continue to post daily like this. And I actually kinda like writing about Mats, Sari and Itte! Can you tell yet that Ittetsu has a thing for Sari? Too bad she's with Abiru. I should try to elaborate on that. Ooh! An idea popped in my head. Better go draft it out. Next Chapter, their first mission as Team 5! Which should it be? Cats or baby-sitting? Chores are sad stuff! – Keomi~Sage**


	3. Chapter 3

**SUMMARY: **Team 5 goes on their first mission. Sari goes on a date with Abiru. Ittetsu finds strength. Matsuri goes on a walk. Enjoy – plot is more evened out between the characters P.S. Team 5 consists of 14 year olds (so they aren't really young)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto, sadness, but it's for the best

Matsuri, Sari, & Ittetsu

Team 5

CHAPTER 3: Love, Hate, the Drunk and Other Stuff

Ittetsu hit the little 3 year old over the head with the bat yet again. Don't worry, it was foam, and the 3 year old was clunking him in the shins with a very painful wooden spoon.

Matsuri and Sari had gotten Komaza and Reki, two wonderful, cute little kunoichi-to-be's. Hayate leaned next to the window of the home, waiting for the approaching parents so the kunoichi could help Ittetsu get the spoon from the kid, and the foam bat from Ittetsu.

When Hayate saw the two happy parents coming back from a much-needed night out, he signaled to Matsuri and Sari. Sari shuffled both Komaza and Reki into her arms and rushed them to their cribs, and Matsuri quickly took the spoon from the baby boy and the bat from Ittetsu.

"Grow up, will you." She hissed in Ittetsu's ear before sniffing indignantly at the crazy hyper baby boy. "Take care of that." She said. When she grew up, she'd rather not have a boy. At the thought, her mind traveled to Gaara. Blushing horribly, she turned away to toss the spoon in the toy bucket, and then the foam bat in the kitchen. Correcting herself, she switched the objects and came back into the main room. Hayate gazed at her in question, being there was still a small hint of a blush on her cheeks.

When Sari and Ittetsu came back into the room, the parents shuffled in, looking happy with themselves.

"Mission accomplished." Sari said, giggling. She was the only one in Team 5 that was okay with such a mission such as babysitting.

…K~S

Abiru jumped in out of nowhere, his arms wrapping tight around Sari's slim waist. She giggled, complaining that his embrace tickled. Ittetsu looked away, sickened. If only she knew who Abiru really was! Anyway, he couldn't worry about that. He'd promised his aunt and uncle that he'd help out at their restaurant. He hurried away, dreading the hours of sucking up to some of the more annoying customers that his aunt and uncle got.

Sari on the other hand was enjoying herself. She turned in Abiru's embrace and pressed her lips to his soft ones. His curly hair tickled her forehead.

"Wanna go on a date with me tonight?" Abiru asked, looking into her eyes from under long, brown lashes. He smiled shyly, melting Sari's gullible heart. She nodded eagerly.

Sari turned to Matsuri. The light brown haired kunoichi blushed when Sari caught her staring, and looked away quickly to the moon, which hung low in the sky. Blushing she disappeared in a strong jump, and traveled over rooftops of the village.

Sari was confused about why Matsuri was going in _that_ direction. Shaking it out of mind, she turned back to Abiru. "So, where are we going tonight?"

Abiru smiled slyly before relaxing his features into a more vulnerable state that he knew hypnotized Sari. "A nice little restaurant I know. I've heard things of the staff. Very hospitable." He leaned into Sari, his nose brushing her ear, his warm breath spraying her neck. "Shall we go?"

Sari blushed and nodded.

…K~S

Matsuri turned over on her side, looking wide-eyed at the picture of Gaara and herself. She'd forced Gaara into taking it. No. Gaara never did anything forced. It was more like she'd asked him until he agreed. He didn't smile in the picture, but that was okay. It wouldn't be him, if he smiled.

She turned again, lying on her back. The ceiling paint was chipped and occasionally fell onto her. She'd learned a long time ago to thoroughly shake her hair out before leaving for the day. Chipped paint was as good, or bad, as having flakes.

She often went to sleep thinking about Gaara. She really did love him.

She turned yet again; facing her coat she never bothered wear. Yet why was it there? Perhaps, because desert nights were so cold, and perhaps she wanted to be somewhere else. With someone else instead of rolling in bed all alone with sleeplessness.

Before she could change her mind, Matsuri shot up, slinging on a skirt and long sleeved shirt, and pulled the coat on. She stepped into her shoes at the door and walked out, forgetting all about the dangers of _this_ part of the Sand.

…K~S

"Um…"

"Yes?"

"Isn't that…."

Abiru chuckled under his breath and nodded. "Why, I believe it is. Ittetsu, love the get up, are you going to be our server tonight?"

Ittetsu stood in front of Abiru and Sari, trying not to make a show of something. But suddenly he felt stupid and ridiculous in the bright white dress-like throw-over, the too puffy pants that stopped half way down his calves, and the embroidered, throw-up colored smock with the big tie in the back. He had to borrow his aunts' uniform, and because she was both bigger and taller than he, the uniform made him look foolish and too scrawny for his own good.

"Yes." He said quietly, looking at his hands. He couldn't seem to look at either of them. Not at Abiru because he didn't want to look at the face of his enemy. Not at Sari because, well, it was all too embarrassing.

"Isn't this the time that you ask us what we'd like?" Abiru asked, folding his fingers under his chin. He smiled haughtily, and this time, Sari noticed.

"Abiru, please." She murmured. Turning to Ittetsu she smiled softly. "Can you get us-"

"Uh…" Abiru cut in, mock-glaring at Sari. "Isn't the _man_ supposed to order?" he snorted unpleasantly. "Learn your place, woman!"

Ittetsu gasped at Abiru's rudeness, and Sari gapped, her eyes bright with hurt and confusion.

"Learn my place? Please Abiru, stop acting like this." She pleaded, still invisible to the true skin of this parody of a nice guy.

Abiru snorted and ordered, but Ittetsu didn't hear him at all. Instead Ittetsu stiffly pivoted around and went and said some random thing to his uncle in the cooking room.

…K~S

Matsuri walked hurriedly down the long pathway. She could see the Kagekaze residence, and unless her eyes were playing tricks on her, she could see a single person standing on the roof. Gaara.

She wondered if he could see her coming, if he could feel her giddy happiness in the air. She decided quickly that she didn't want him to think of her as so eager for his company. Yet she was.

Across the street from her, a man with a suna headband that hung lazily around his neck crashed through an old bar. His eyes sagged and his mouth hung slack. He wore his flak jacket, the sign of a chunin, sloppily. So much that Matsuri contemplated taking it from him.

As the drunk's eyes found Matsuri, he staggered towards her, his arms swinging at his sides, his stance, though dizzy and drunk, predatory and stalking.

Matsuri walked quickly, yet he followed, every once in a while calling drunkenly for her to slow down.

She mashed her teeth together. Trying to pay no attention to him. He wasn't going to ruin her walk to-

The drunk jumped with a surprising stealth for someone so wasted, and grabbed Matsuri by the neck. Matsuri lost her footing for a second and they both went down.

"Enemy, enemy!" the drunk crowed, still holding a withering Matsuri on the sandy ground. Finally Matsuri cleared her mind and jabbed hard at the drunks' stomach. He curled into himself, letting her go. Matsuri crawled off her knees and stood, ready to clear the distance between them, but the man grabbed her roughly by her skinny ankle. She could feel it twist, and the pressure he applied to it wasn't helping. She hit the sandy ground face forward, her elbows scraping the ground, bloodying at the impact.

Matsuri wanted to summon a jutsu, but the only ones she knew would hurt the drunk, and she didn't have any weapons on her. Gritting her teeth she kicked hard at the drunks face. She could hear him howl, but he didn't let go of her ankle, just crushed it harder. She could even feel some chakra enhance the strength of his grip. She cried out, too pained to think straight. _Help me, some one! _

…K~S

Ittetsu came back with the random orders and set them down on the table for Abiru and Sari. As he turned away, however, Abiru called him back. Sari had a look of _what now? _ And Ittetsu was thinking close to the same thing, except his thought had a couple of curses in them, mostly towards Abiru, but the question was the same.

Without warning, Abiru practically jumped over the table, grabbing a handful of Sari's dark, long hair, and pushing her face into his. Ittetsu froze as he saw Sari's eyelid quiver from the pain of the collision. He gasped at the intensity of the kiss that seemed all one sided. Sari's mouth was curved down, her eyebrows mashed together.

Ittetsu wanted to leave, but he was frozen.

"Abiru!" Sari managed around her 'boyfriends' lips that weren't so soft anymore. "Stop."

"No" he growled against her lips. Sari gasped, and Ittetsu felt a heat reach his face and body. His hand shot forward against his will and he pulled Abiru by the shoulder off of Sari.

Abiru spilled onto the ground in a messy heap.

"She… she said _stop_, Abiru. Stop means stop." Ittetsu breathed out, a little scared about what Abiru might say or do. "Now… go, you aren't welcome here anymore."

Abiru smirked and stood up. Standing all the way up, Ittetsu realized that Abiru was still about an inch shorter than him, even with the curls.

Abiru turned back to Sari, who wasn't watching her boyfriend, rather Ittetsu. "Let's go, Sari." He grabbed for her arm, but she maneuvered the arm away.

"We're done," she said, solidly.

_Finally_, Ittetsu thought. _Her eyes have opened!_

Abiru glared at Sari for a moment, before laughing. "Fine, bitch. I was going to break up with you anyway." He rolled his eyes and turned to walk out, but his stagger was broken, his shoulders hunched. For after all, he wasn't such a big person as he seemed.

…K~S

Matsuri didn't have time to react as a wave of sand, silver in the moonlight, slammed into the drunk, pushing him away from her and into the wall.

She gazed up as someone kneeled next to her head, curious blue eyes, made dark in the low light gazed down at her.

She crawled up and hugged Gaara, needing his arms around her, the warmth of his body despite the cold.

He wrapped his arms around her in return, his lips against her hair. "Are you alright, Matsuri?" he asked.

"My ankle." She said. Gaara nodded and a mass of sand formed under them, moving them quickly back o Matsuri's house. Once inside the shabby apartment, Gaara set her on her bed and Matsuri wordlessly pointed to the little medical stuff she owned. She really needed to get more.

She was confused for a moment as Gaara fixed her ankle for her, checking the bone before remembering. "You're uncle was a medic-nin. You must have picked something up." She said. The subject of Gaara's deceased uncle, Yashamaru, used to be a touchy subject for them, but since 4 months after training with Gaara, Matsuri had earned the key into his deeper memories and thoughts. And to his heart.

"Yes," he murmured, tying the gauze carefully but tightly into place. "You have a twisted ankle, and it is going to be very sore. So, um, no missions until it's perfectly healed."

Matsuri frowned, but nodded. "Thank you, Gaara." She said, turning her frown upside-down.

Gaara stood and looked around, and Matsuri held back any words of objection. She'd told Gaara where she lived, that she used to live in a better home when she had parents, but she'd never invited him, or anyone really, into her shabby abode.

"I don't want you living here anymore, Matsuri." Gaara said as he walked back to her. "Isn't there anyone you could stay with?"

Matsuri opened her mouth eagerly but quickly snapped her mouth shut.

"What?" Gaara asked, sitting beside her.

"I was going to ask if I could stay with you." She admitted.

Gaara's lips twitched, but he shook his head. "It wouldn't be best. I meant a friend of cousin?"

"I don't really have any friends." She murmured.

"What about… Sari?" he asked. "Sari's on your team, isn't that so?"

Matsuri nodded. "But it's not like I know her well enough."

"You could try." Gaara said, leaning into her. Matsuri blushed.

"I guess I could." She whispered, lifting her chin up, her lips slightly parted. The couple looked into each other's eyes for a moment, before leaning into each other, their lips gently pushing against each other. Matsuri's eyes fluttered in surprise, but closed and she leaned more into Gaara.

They kissed in silence for about 8 seconds, and broke apart. Matsuri was sure her whole face had colored an unattractive shade of red, and somehow Gaara kept some composure, with only a slight pinkening to his cheeks.

"I love you." He said softly, but there was so much truth, knowledge, and even pain behind his words. His words were the truth.

Matsuri felt overcome, and threw her arms around his neck. "I love you. I love, love, love you."

…K~S

Ittetsu looked at Sari, and Sari looked at Ittetsu and a few people eating still glanced at them, and Ittetsu's uncle randomly gazed at them, and chuckled, thinking his nephew had game. Nope. Ittetsu had Sari's attention. There's a difference, after all, between gitten' and gettin'.

"I'm sorry about Abiru." Sari said. She had a serious look in her brown eyes that looked misplaced. But she was studying him in a new light, now, other than the slightly moody genin that she barely knew that would never look her in the eyes, though agreed with her on everything she did.

"Don't be." He mumbled, picking a few wooden splinters from the cheap chopsticks his uncle had made him sculpt with his kunai.

"You stood up for me…. I can't even stand up for me!" Sari exclaimed. Still Ittetsu was silent, his head down and his face shadowed.

Sari bit her lip. "Look at me," she said, grabbing hold of his hand. Ittetsu froze, a blush spilling across his face. He glanced up at her from under his lashes, like Abiru used to do. But Ittetsu wasn't Abiru. Sari smiled softly. "You helped me out, thank you."

Ittetsu picked his head up and gazed at her. "Yeah," he said, his voice bitter from anguish. "But it still doesn't change anything." He pushed himself up and walked away from the table and Sari.

_Change what_? Sari asked herself. She put a perfect hand to her heart. She'd thought she'd felt this feeling with Abiru, but he was gone. Then what was this feeling?

…K~S

Ittetsu moodily stripped out of his uniform and back into his regular clothes, when he walked out of the employee changing room, he saw that Sari was gone. A few people who'd eaten and saw the whole mess between Sari, Abiru and himself eyed him with pity. Well, he didn't need their pity. He rushed out of the shop without picking up his earnings from his uncle, and shuffled down the streets to his home where dumplings and noodles would be waiting for him.

On the way, he couldn't stop thinking about Sari. He remembered the first day he'd ever talked to her. It had been also the first day he decided he hated Abiru's guts. The pig had threatened him at the blade of a kunai, and even jabbed him with it, only to reveal that the weapon had a useless, and very dull and rounded off edge. The jab still left a bruise, but that was all. Abiru and his friends went off laughing, leaving Ittetsu to cry in the dirt. He was 5 at the time. Suddenly a warm hand touched his shoulder, and the most beautiful face looked down at him. Those caring chocolate brown eyes gazing right into his own. She'd asked him if he was okay, and even spent the rest of the day playing ninja with him. Sari. That was her name. Still, after a day, she'd forgotten him. They never spoke again until…. Ittetsu realized why he loved her so much. She was kind, and innocent. Her heart was so big. Even if she wasn't the strongest kunoichi, and forgetful.

He loved her, thus he loved her as a whole.

Flaws and all.

…K~S

Matsuri rested with her head on the comfy pillows. She was in Gaara's guest room, until she could find other arrangements. She hadn't realized that he'd really seriously wanted his precious person out of that house.

She giggled, happy in the comfy bed. _I wonder how the other's nights are going?_

**I thought this went very well, and very lovedovey. I'm just happy I was able to write two chapters in one day – winning – anyway, that was Matsuri's first kiss, Sari's first break up, and Ittetsu's first step towards Sari's heart. Hope that didn't give anything away. I'm considering changing the rating on this, howeva: drunk people, intense kissing, Matsuri's suggestively talking about bunking with her boyfriend? I wish there was something between K+ and T, like maybe K++, for 12 year olds who go to schools where talk of the themes I listed are openly conversed about… yeah, I doubt it. Anyway, keep reading. Next time, we'll work on tightening the bonds – Keomi~Sage **


	4. Chapter 4

**SUMMARY:** Sari takes an interest in Ittetsu, Ittetsu tries to impress Sari, and Matsuri goes House hunting – plot is evened out amongst Team 5

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto, but I own my dog

Matsuri, Sari, & Ittetsu

CHAPTER 4: House Hunters and Tightening Bonds

"Matsuri?"

The brown haired kunoichi opened her eyes to see an angry looking guy leaning over her. She blinked, confused. Who was he, exactly?

"Matsuri!" he said irritably. "GET UP!"

Matsuri woke up all the way, sitting up. "Geez. You didn't have to wake me up so rudely! And who are you, anyway?"

The man with the spiky brown hair closed his eyes, his eyebrow twitching in annoyance. "It's me, KANKURO!"

Matsuri blinked in surprise. "Uh… oh. I didn't recognize you with out your make-up-"

"FACE PAINT!" Kankuro yelled, putting his hands to his head and storming out. Once he was gone Matsuri got up and got dressed. Gaara had a medic-nin stop by the night before to properly bandage and inspect her ankle. The medic-nin had also given her crutches, so she wouldn't have to put weight on the injured foot. Gaara had been right about one thing, no missions for a while.

Sighing, she shuffled out of the Kazekage residence with the crutches and headed to the training field.

…K~S

Sari and Ittetsu sat on opposite sides of the training field. Sari wondered why Ittetsu acted so weird the night before. Pushing that out of her mind, she stood up and picked a kunai from her weapons holster. There were some kunai practice logs in the clearing, and it didn't hurt to practice her throwing.

She threw one after a moment, her aim good. A perfect shot. Smiling, she walked back to get it, hoping it was still as sharp as she'd had it that morning.

"Good throw."

Sari jumped. A little too close behind her was Ittetsu. He wore an expression of indifference. Sari handed the Kunai to him. "Want to try?"

Ittetsu's mouth twitched, and nodded, taking the kunai and stepping back. Sari watched as Ittetsu judged his angle, and with a quick flick of his wrist shot the kunai perfectly in the center. It lodged deep with a muted thud.

"You're good." Sari murmured, pushing back a twig of jealousy. She was okay with Matsuri being a star, but she'd wanted to be good at something, anything, that Ittetsu wasn't good at already.

"Thanks." He murmured, dislodging the kunai and handing it back to her.

"What else can you do?" Sari asked, sliding the knife back in her holster.

Ittetsu thought about it for a moment before putting up a stance. "Taijustsu. Are you any good?"

Sari shook her head. Ittetsu chuckled and moved from his stance. "I'm not brag-worthy good, but I know some moves."

"What about Ninjutsu?" Sari asked.

"I'm not extremely good." Ittetsu explained. "I've only remembered one or two hand signs, and my chakra isn't…." he sighed, shrugging. "I don't know."

"Not controlled enough?" Sari offered. Ittetsu blushed, nodding. "Well, that's why we are in these squads, to improve our skills."

"Yeah, if only Hayate-Sensei would actually help us to improve." Ittetsu muttered.

"Well, it doesn't _just_ have to be Hayate who's helping us out." Sari pointed out. "We can help each other."

Ittetsu blushed again, looking down at his feet. "Sure. I'll help you with taijustsu, and you can help me with chakra control."

"Okay okay." Sari said, smiling brightly.

Ittetsu smiled back, right as Matsuri walked into the training area, looking slightly surprised to see Ittetsu, the stubborn one, and Sari, the peppy one, smiling at each other.

"Um…" Matsuri said. She watched as the two pivoted a little bit away from each other and blush. "Oi, Sari. Do you mind if I talk to you?"

Sari blinked, glancing at Ittetsu for a nano-second, and nodded. The two kunoichi walked out, leaving Ittetsu to stand alone, unaware of the mysterious person eyeing him from afar.

…K~S

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Sari asked. It was weird seeing Matsuri laboring over crutches, her ankle tied up in gauze.

"Well, I have to leave my house, but I…" Matsuri pursed her lips. This was her only weakness. Only herself, Gaara, and a few council members who'd covered her parents knew it. "I don't have any other family." Matsuri ducked her head. "And you're the closest friend I've got right now."

"So," Sari began, smiling softly. "You would like to stay at my house with myself and my parents?"

"I'll pay for my own food and stuff, I just need-"

"I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind supporting you, Matsuri." Sari said, putting a thin arm around her friend. "And we'd _love_ to have you."

Matsuri's eyes opened wide in surprise. "Uh… Sari! You're too peppy!"

Sari blinked, not sure if Matsuri meant it as an insult or if she was complementing, or just stating a fact.

"Don't think too hard on it, Sari." Matsuri said, giving her friend a wary smile.

…K~S

Ittetsu opened an eye as he saw her walk back to the training field.

"Hey, Sari. What did Matsuri want?"

Sari blinked. "Oh. Uh, nothing much." She smiled that cute smile. Her brown eyes warm. "So, do you think you could teach me some taijustsu?"

Ittetsu raised an eyebrow. "Don't you think we should conserve our energy for training with Hayate-Sensei?"

Sari shook her head. "Please, Ittetsu?"

The boy blushed, but nodded. "Alright, sure. Lets start off with something easy."

Ittetsu dropped back into stance. "Watch me now."

Sari's eyes went playful, her smile flirty. "Oh, I will."

Ittetsu blushed at the sound of her voice, but shook his head and kicked out with a leg, bringing it down, and swung the other leg around while punching out. "Simple enough?" He inquired.

Sari nodded. She dropped into the stance he'd used in one fluid movement. Kicking out a foot, she leaned her body down after, swinging her hips in a very sensual, but powerful way, and punched out.

Ittetsu swallowed hard as she punched, her hair falling slightly out of place, her eyes smiling.

Before he had time to recover, she stepped back into a casual stance, facing him with knowing eyes.

"How was that?" she asked, clasping her hands together.

It took Ittetsu a while to answer before finally he nodded. "G-good. That was good. Great, even." He went back to his starting stance. "How about this?" he pushed up off the ground, swinging his leg out and to the opposite side. He leaned back; punching upward, and then did a flip in the air, and finally landed in a crouch on his feet.

Sari looked at him with half closed eyes. She jumped up, performing step after step with grace and divine ability.

When her feet touched the ground, instead of being a stiff, Ittetsu clapped his hands. Sari giggled, bowing low, but in such away that he could see down the collar of her shirt. Ittetsu looked up, blushing hard. When Sari stood up, he was relieved.

"I've got to go. But I'll be back." She announce, twirling around.

Ittetsu started, frowning. "What? But what if the Sensei comes? I don't want to be around him alone!"

Sari looked back, her eyes flirting again. "Come on, be a man. I've got stuff to take care of. I'll be back. And if he comes, make up a good excuse for me, 'kay?"

Ittetsu didn't reply, he just watched her leave, and most likely with a very idiotic look on his face.

"What…." He whispered, "Just happened?"

…K~S

Matsuri sat at the small, but elegant wooden table in the kitchen of Sari's home. Sari's mother Kashike, sat across from her, sipping tea from an expensive looking cup.

"Are you sure it's okay I stay here?" Matsuri asked Kashike.

The woman smiled. "Tsuchino and I would love to have you. We have a spare bedroom, right next to Sari's bedroom. You'd have to share a bathroom with the whole family. Sari will show you where it is."

Matsuri smiled. "Are you and your husband both ninja?"

Kashike smiled, nodding. "We are both Jonin."

Matsuri perked up. "I want to be a Jonin one day. Do you have any students?"

Kashike shook her head. "Of course, we aren't as young as we once were… we don't have the patients for students."

Matsuri nodded. "I understand. I'd always feel bad whenever I couldn't perform a task Gaara… er, I mean Lord Kazekage," she frowned. It was still weird calling him Kazekage. "Set out for me."

Sari's mother perked up. "That's right. You're our Lord Kazekage's old student. I'm glad that you're in Sari's team." Kashike sighed, looking down at her hands. "You see, a long time ago, there was a _terrible_ mix up in our family."

Matsuri raised an eyebrow. "What type of mix up?" she asked.

Kashike's face paled. "Er… well, my sister, my twin sister, conceived almost the exact time I did. Her child was to be named Sari, same as my own. We both wanted the name; it can be translated to 'Sand village', and we both wanted our daughters to be named after Suna." Kashike took another sip from her cup. "Sari and Sari… they both looked exactly identical! We could never bring them to meet each other, because they looked _so_ much alike!"

"That must be horrible." Matsuri said. She didn't have any cousins, but if she did, she'd spend all the time she could with them. "But… but how does this other Sari effect our Sari?"

"Well, one day, my sister and I decided that we would bring them to meet each other. And when it was time to go home, well, we took home the wrong children." She sighed, folding her hands. "My sister and her husband live a life out side of the ninja world in a small village apart from this one. They didn't believe my Sari when she said she wasn't their true child, and so she lived for a few years without ninja training. She grew soft, and learned to depend on others. My sisters' child, on the other hand, was trained under fine tutors, but the year before she had to start the ninja academy, my sister discovered the truth, that our daughters had swapped places. We reunited with our daughters, only my niece, the other Sari, wasn't so willing to leave." Kashike shook her head. "The other Sari is a manipulative flirt. Nothing but trouble."

Matsuri frowned, touching the metal chopsticks on the table, placed for mainly decoration. "What are the chances that I'd ever meet the other Sari?"

Kashike put a pretty finger to her chin. "Probably never, if you're lucky."

Matsuri smiled. "Good. She really sounds like someone _not_ to mess with."

Sari's mother nodded. "She was able to deceive my husband and I, two jonin, for about 2 years. She isn't to trust."

…K~S

Sari walked back from walking Matsuri to her house. She thought it was sort of sweet how Matsuri really needed a place, but was so quick to offer to leave. Maybe they'd get to become really close friends, now that they'd be under the same roof. And Matsuri really did have a lot of nice bones in her, if only she'd loosen up a little.

On the way to the training field, she bumped into a girl with long dark brown hair and eyes. Startled by the familiar face, she spun around, but the girl, if she was there in the first place, disappeared. Sari shivered, feeling as if anyone were about to stab her in the back.

Hunching forward slightly, she moved faster to the training field. Was it really her? Was it the other Sari?

**O…M…Q(Oh my Que): Anyway… did anyone realize that Kashike and Tsuchino were victims of little 6-year-old Gaara? Probably not. Though one of them, Kashike, I think, is a guy, but many people think he's a she, so… too bad. And bonds were tightened! Ittetsu to… Sari… or Sari? And Sari to Matsuri, and the other way around. Too bad we don't have any Hayate Tanaka action happening, I just don't like trying to think of having to write for him- his character is so uninteresting, even though I call him the Crazy-Butt Jonin. I guess I just haven't found any inspiration for him. Oh, and my dog's name is Que-la (the –la comes from a book): maybe I'll make Hayate's character like my dog… I think I could make that work – Keomi~Sage**


	5. Chapter 5

_**I haven't written for this story in forever, so I've decided to bump up Matsuri, Ittetsu, and Sari's age by a year so I have the excuse to mess up the personalities. Recap from the last chapter: Sari has an identical counterpart who may or may not be back. Matsuri is living with Sari and Ittetsu is confused about where he stands with Sari. Also! Mild suggestive themes but not really.**_

_**What is happening now:**_ Ittetsu and Sari are full of love/lust tension and Matsuri has a sweet for her sweet. Set a little after Shukaku removal.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto for obvious reasons

Chapter 5

Don't Mess With a Girl in Love

Matsuri woke up early in the morning, and despite the allures of the warm, soft bed she slept in, she jumped out eagerly and got dressed. She no longer wore her slightly color blind suit of teals and yellows and browns. Instead she wore a simple gray dress and shinobi jacket that fit her slim frame well. She tied her ninja headband loosely around her neck before breathing in the day smiling.

A year had passed since her first kiss and her second move out of an empty house – this time into a home full of warmth.

Matsuri ran out of the room and put her sandals on at the door. The home of which Sari lived was still in slumber, but Matsuri was very awake.

She jogged towards the Kazekage residence, riding a high of happiness. A year ago, she would have had to wait until the sun rose higher in the sky and for more good souls to come out before leaving her home on the _bad_ side of Suna. But now the trip to her lovers abode was closer and safer, and she could see him before and after his Kazekage duties and would be too busy for her.

When she arrived at the tall sandy building that was the Kazekage residence she let herself in and headed straight to Gaara's room. Inside the room was dark and cool, refreshing since she'd run all that way to see him. Gaara rested but didn't sleep, in his bed. Since having the Shukaku removed he was free to doze off, yet old habits died hard, and he remained, for the most part, an insomniac.

However he lifted himself up when he sensed her, smiling a rare smile to Matsuri, his beloved.

Matsuri walked up to him, squatting beside him. They shared a sweet kiss in greeting and Gaara pulling Matsuri to sit next to him on the bed.

Matsuri hummed against his mouth before they broke apart, running her hand through his spiked red hair.

"How are you feeling?" she asked quietly, looking him in the eyes. He looked tired, but not very worn, so she was grateful.

"Fine. It will take a while for me to get back to functioning properly however." He looked down at his hands.

"But you _will_ find a way," Matsuri said, her sureness in him soothing. "You still have your sand power, right?"

Gaara nodded. "I'll need to summon more chakra and get my stamina levels back up for that, but I'm sure it will come back."

Matsuri smiled and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm glad." Matsuri murmured.

…K~S

Ittetsu grumbled to himself on the way to the practice field to meet up with his sensei and team. His face was still a little bruised from getting slugged in the face by Matsuri.

The sandy haired genin of the Sand had become significantly moody and stubborn in the year since becoming genin. Part of it had to do with his crazy jonin leader, Hayate. Hayate Sensei was as crazy as an un-fixed over hyper dog, and was always finding the excuse to throw stuff at him. Also, Matsuri was always using him as her slug puppet, and blindly hit him over the head whenever she felt the need to slug. There was also his part time job at his Uncle and Aunt's restaurant that gave him extra money but an extra thing to do after missions and training. Lastly there was _her_. Sari. The love of his life and his greatest weakness.

Just thinking about the pretty kunoichi filled him with confusion and regret. He remembered from a year ago how she'd mysteriously become the opposite of _Sari_ and flirted openly with him. The next day she was back to indifference, her tiajustsu skills sucking and her love for him obscured to only simple looks that held something of love and confusion.

He ran a hand through his hair, accidentally knocking off his headband that was attacked to a blue gray bandana. He groaned, turning around to pick it up, and found himself face to face with none other than Sari.

Her shining dark brown eyes gazed into his, making his heart start up unevenly in his heart.

She stood with the headband in her hand, smiling kindly. Ittetsu quickly snapped up and took his headband back when Sari offered it.

"Thanks," Ittetsu mumbled, turning away a little to fasten the bandana.

Sari smiled. "It's funny: Matsuri got up before I did, and yet she is late," she laughed softly. "My parents, Matsuri and I stopped by your relatives restaurant yesterday." She added.

Ittetsu nodded. "My aunt mentioned it," he said. "I…" he looked up, pointing with an amused look on his face behind Sari. She turned around and laughed.

Their sensei and Matsuri raced to the practice field. Hayate was a tall, long-legged jonin, and Matsuri a slightly short, average limb-length genin, yet somehow Matsuri ran close behind Hayate, her eyes sharp and determined.

Ittetsu and Sari jumped back as the two raced passed them, raising a cloud of dust.

"I WON!" Matsuri shouted before flopping forward with her hands on her knees. She heaved heavily.

"Wrong, young kunoichi," Hayate Sensei said evenly. "I won by a foot."

Matsuri stood tall, crossing her slender arms across her chest. "Sore loser! I won, admit it!"

Hayate shook his head. "You can't win against a Jonin-"

"But I did!" Matsuri argued back, getting a little red.

Sari stood between Matsuri and her sensei smiling nervously. "Calm down you two." She turned to Kayate. "Do we have any missions?"

Hayate shrugged. "Not today. Today we are going to be practicing our jutsu."

Matsuri and Sari smiled at each other. Ittetsu groaned.

"I hate jutsu," Ittetsu moaned. Hayate threw dust at him. Ittetsu coughed, whipping the dust from his face. "I _love_ jutsu!"

Hayate chuckled. "Sari, how is your Saboten Hari (Cactus needle) jutsu holding up?"

As answer, Sari shaped a few hand signs and attached chakra strings to cactus needles in a container that hung on her hip. They flew up and hung in the air dangerously poised so that with just the slightest twitch of her concentration would send them falling down. The needles were covered with poison, and with the chakra wires she'd learned how to make, the jutsu was impressive.

"Good job Sari," Matsuri said, smiling at her best friend.

Sari smiled and guided the needles back into their container.

Hayate nodded. "Good job indeed." He turned to Matsuri who stood waiting. "Matsuri?"

The short brown haired kunoichi smiled and focused her chakra to her robe javelin. A half year ago she found that she had wind element style chakra, so Gaara had Temari teach her how to mold that chakra into her weapon of choice.

Matsuri swung the javelin in a circle, focusing the wind in her chakra and shaped it into the swing of the javelin and pushed out, creating a spiral tunnel of wind that blew away a few trees as Matsuri steered the tunnel.

"Defense in an offense." She said, smiling.

"Excellent," Sari said happily.

"Needs work," Hayate murmured. Matsuri tried to jump on the jonin but he danced out of the way. "Ittetsu, show us your jutsu!" he exploded (not literally).

Ittetsu groaned again. Hayate threw a wooden staff at Ittetsu's head. Ittetsu stopped groaning and settled for sighing softly. Over the year Sari had helped him improve his chakra control, but he didn't have any imagination for creating jutsu and his family didn't have any special jutsu within it.

"Okay," he said softly. "I haven't figured it out yet, and-"

Hayate hit Ittetsu on the head with a hardback copy of _Breaking Dawn_. "You are supposed to have formulated a jutsu!" Hayate said, stating the obvious. "If Bella can figure out how to push her shield from her body to surround others like Edward and her vampire/human baby Renesmee, you can create a jutsu!"

Ittetsu rolled his eyes, which was rewarded by a hit on the head by a copy of _Eclipse_, also a hardback.

"Damn it, quit hitting me with Stephanie Meyers books!" Ittetsu grumbled.

"Why do you even _have_ them?" Matsuri asked skeptically.

Hayate shrugged. "It's a good read," the crazy jonin said aloofly. "Anyway, you have by tomorrow to create a jutsu, Ittetsu, or I'm sending you back to the ninja academy for a month!"

Ittetsu screamed and Tobi-danced. "YOU CANT DO THAT!" Ittetsu said angrily.

Hayate laughed and got up in Ittetsu's face. "Guess what, I can!" Hayate hit Ittetsu on the head with a hardback copy of _New Moon_.

…K~S

Matsuri pretended not to notice Sari frowning at her noodles while she ate, but it was hard.

Sari had the 'Sad Face' of a half drowned puppy who _Just wanted to be loved!_

"M-Matsuri?" Sari began, barely noticing her friend cringe. Sari's father glanced at his wife and they both shared a shrug.

The shorthaired kunoichi sighed. "Yeah, Sari?"

Sari smiled a little. "Okay, okay. I know it's crazy, but we should try and help Ittetsu."

Sari's mother, Kashike looked at the two friends in interest. "You mean your crush, Sari?"

Sari went tomato red, had herself a spasm, and then calmed herself down. "I don't like him, _mother_." She said tightly. Sari's dad chuckled and forcefully directed his wife away from his daughter. "Thanks dad," Sari called.

Matsuri started eating again. "You should stop by the Cranky Mules house and help him out, Sari."

Sari glared at Matsuri, who was eating as if it were her last meal. "I don't want to do it alone. It's late and what would people think if we-"

But the cute Matsuri wasn't listening. She wanted to be elsewhere. "Here's an idea to help the kid. He has strong chakra, but it's not controlled well. So how about a chakra shield?"

Sari brightened instantly, because, of course, moody wasn't her style. "That's perfect. It will be easy to manage, and useful… but a chakra shield isn't original." Sari got gloomy again.

Matsuri rolled her eyes. "Since when has the mule been _original_?"

Sari giggled, instantly cheery again. Bowing she said, "You are very wise, Matsuri-sama."

"Of course I am," she laughed. "And who am I to _not_ help out a fellow kunoichi in her fight for love?"

Sari had been smiling brightly throughout Matsuri's words, until she heard 'in love'. Luckily the wise Matsuri was quick and escaped through the kitchen and outside before Sari could harvest her anger.

Even if Matsuri loved fighting with Sari when the girl was fierce (a rare thing), she had places she really wanted to be.

…K~S

The room was nice and quiet, romantically candlelit. Kankuro had a mission he was attending and Temari was out late with some friends. Not that Matsuri didn't like Gaara's siblings, but it was just _so_ much more easy being romantic without them busting in to harass their little brother, and her as well in the process.

Matsuri brought dessert and was coaxing her favorite redhead to try it.

"Common, it's yummy." Matsuri said, inching the tiny spoon dangerously close to Gaara's mouth. The rest of the pudding rested on a small table squat on the ground where they sat.

The dessert of the day was rice pudding.

"The Kazekage doesn't eat things classified under 'yummy', Matsuri." Gaara said, but not unkindly.

Matsuri rolled her eyes and pushed the spoon into her mouth thinking. "Well, you _aren't_ the Kazekage now. You are Gaara, Matsuri's faithful boyfriend who is super cute and _going to try the pudding_!" her voice got a little scary, but not scary enough to sway the Kazekage of the Sand.

"Maybe dumplings, or-" Gaara started but a spoon has lodged itself between his lips and the foreign taste of rice pudding fell in his mouth.

Matsuri grinned. "Well? It's good, admit it!"

Gaara swallowed and downed it with some water. Finally he looked at Matsuri. "I don't like it."

Matsuri pouted, pushing the small table aside gently and then proceeded to getting in his face. "Gaara, that's not fair," she argued, slapping his chest lightly. He smiled softly, and wrapped her in his arms.

She smiled, in a second forgetting that she was embarrassed about being wrong, and leaned into him.

Gaara leaned back onto the ground, and Matsuri lay just over him. When their lips pressed together a nice warmth spread through them both. They rolled once, Gaara above Matsuri and his lips still on hers.

Gaara could taste the rice pudding on her mouth, but was glad that the signature _Matsuri_ taste was still there. Otherwise he probably would break off the kiss. He couldn't ask her to brush her teeth.

So they continued to kiss until the sound of a door closing from the lower levels of the mansion sounded in their ears. Temari's random chatting with herself could be heard.

Matsuri rested her head on the ground and peaked up at her favorite person from the corner of her eyes. He looked a tad annoyed that his sister chose to come home early, but there was also resolve in his eyes.

She slid from under him and he leaned back to let her up. "I should go," she murmured.

Gaara's stare was now unreadable. "You can, but I doubt Temari would suspect, or mind, anything. We could go watch the skies."

Matsuri smiled and nodded. "That'd be nice."

…K~S

"OH MY OH MY OH MY OH MY OH MY OH MY OH MY OH MY OH MY OH MY!" Sari wailed, turning away from the 'In a way, but not really, well, it depends on how you look at it' nude Ittetsu.

And because this would probably be an M rated fanfic if he was, he isn't, Sari just suspects he is.

Ittetsu grumbled, trying with a burning passion to control his freaking out as he swiftly pulled on some pants over his underwear and then a shirt.

"Oh my," Sari whispered. She was blushing and fanning herself.

"I wasn't _really_ naked," Ittetsu mumbled, though he was as red as… something that is really red, and still screaming on the inside.

"Okay, okay." Sari said, trying to get the panic out of her system. "I, I came here to help you with your jutsu, and give you an idea… but you were asleep."

Ittetsu blinked. "Oh yeah. I figured Hayate was being crazy about the whole 'Send you back to the ninja academy' thing."

"I don't think so." Sari said. "Besides, I figured out the perfect jutsu for you!"

Ittetsu perked up a little. "Really. You did that for me?"

Sari faltered. She hadn't wanted to come alone, it was Matsuri's brilliant idea behind the jutsu, and she felt selfish.

"Yes, all for you." Then she put a finger in the slug/mule puppets face. "So you better work, okay, okay?"

Ittetsu gulped. "Okay, okay."

Sari frowned, "Um, _hey_, that's my random speech normalcy!"

"Sorry!" Ittetsu said, smiling. He was grasping that he'd get to spend the whole night with his crush.

**How's that for a chapter after a month? I could have finished this 2 days early, but I was swept in by the power of True Grit 'Never doubt the Texas Ranger', Bleach '… (fighting, ya!)' and the Last Air Bender 'Yip yip!'. The Air Bender never gets old. Anyway, I'm going to end the chapter there. How was the chapter, did you like the lovey-dubby parts and were they appropriate? Next chapter, did Ittetsu figure out the jutsu, or not, and what ever happened to the other Sari? And I realized that readers might not get my 'Slug-Puppet' thing. In Naruto Shippuden episode 32 you get to see Ittetsu balling, and then Matsuri punches him on the head and then pushes him in the face, which inspired the slug puppet thing. How's **_**that**_** for creativity. Anyways, review so I get motivation, and keep on writing and or reading :) – Keomi~Sage for the Win! 'Yip yip!'**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello readers! Sorry I didn't put this up as quickly as I could: I got sick :( But here it is : ) this chapter is going to be all about Sari and Ittetsu: WARNING: this story gets a little bloody**

**Disclaimer:** As many times as I have to write this the odds are it will never change: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 6

Scarlett Tears and a Dagger 

She lounged in a small tree that bore healing plants. She was in the empty green house for medical plants in the sand.

Her pretty brown eyes were on the thin needles on the silver tray. Sari knew what her skills were and found that they were appropriate for her attitude. The thin needles would never compare to senbon, the deathly acupuncture. But she had a target, and all there was left to do was find her.

…K~S

Ittetsu fell back onto the dusty ground of his backyard. Sari was shaky on her feet, tired and sweaty from helping him perfect the jutsu. Now that the morning sun was in the sky, the desert grew hot instead of cold.

The sandy haired genin groaned as he sat up, his stomach muscles sore and overworked. "One more go," he managed through labored breaths of hot air.

Sari smiled beautifully. She was inspired by his will to perfect his common, but useful jutsu. She walked up to him and punched halfheartedly at him. The chakra shield shot out from his body and her punch hit solid chakra.

Sari smiled through the pain in her hand. She hadn't the heart to tell him about her bloody knuckles or fatigued and swollen fingers.

She hadn't breathed a word about the way her calves burned or how her knees ached. Her spine feeling wry and beaten or her ribs uncomfortable and overlarge from the heaviness of her breathing as she attacked him over and over.

The pretty, yet _exhausted_ ninja looked on as Ittetsu wavered and fell to his knees. He smiled weakly at the dirt, knowing he'd accomplished something.

Sari was glad to see him happy, but she was tired beyond belief. Her chakra was almost gone and she knew if she pressed herself she'd suffer far worse than just being a little tired.

She walked up to her friend and bent to her knees gratefully. "I'm going to go home now to rest. You should too. Hayate Sensei will want to see that new jutsu of yours around afternoon today. You need to gather more…" she blinked, "Ittetsu? Are you listening to me?"

She touched his shoulder and jumped back as he fell over on his side, eyes closed and definitely asleep.

Sari smiled softly and with as much strength as she could conjure up, pulled him back into his house and rested him in his family room on a thin bamboo mat.

"Sweet dreams, little ninja," she said kindly, not even grossed out by the small trail of drool that had flowed from the boys' mouth.

Sari left his home, making sure to close the doors completely behind her, and headed down the road to her home. Her whole body ached. Still she was happy she helped in. Sari didn't know what she'd do if he were placed back at the academy.

Sari's feelings were unsteady about Ittetsu. She knew she really liked him, but still, how far was she ready to go?

"SARI!" Matsuri yelled, racing up to her. The young teen stopped in front of her friend with bright eyes. "Guess what!"

Sari smiled. She was practically dead on her feet, but she tried to summon enough energy to go along with Matsuri's out-of-character overjoyed mood.

"What is it, Matsuri?" Sari asked.

"I'm going to Konoha with Gaara and Temari!" she exclaimed.

"Really?" Sari said, hugging her best friend tight. "That's awesome. For how long?"

"Well, it'll take 6 days traveling there and back, and then the 4 days and nights in between, so… wow, 10 days without you, Sari!" Matsuri realized, glumming a little at the thought of leaving her friend to fend for herself.

Sari smiled smally. "Think of it this way: _10 whole days with Gaara_," she reminded. Matsuri blushed, her eyes shining with a passion.

"You rock, Sari." Matsuri said, mock-punching Sari's shoulder.

Sari smiled. "You too, Matsuri."

…K~S

Sari tilted her head against the relaxing spray of the hot water. She knew she'd been showering long enough to run her house, and perhaps the neighboring homes as well, out of hot water. The problem was she was too stiff to care. The sound of her family talking about in the kitchen reminded her of food.

Sighing she let the soothing spray relax her before turning the water off. She took a towel from on top of the hamper and wrapped it around her body. Her other clothes were filthy, and she wanted only the best.

In the bedroom she saw random outfits laid out. She went to a small dresser and picked out a nice outfit that complimented her nicely.

Sari brushed out her long hair and hummed to an old lullaby.

She heard the footsteps, labored and heavy, and threw the brush on the thin bed. She ducked, judging the crawl space between the bed and the floor, and decided she could fit.

Squeezing under she waited until she saw the bare feet in the room, padding tiredly around. The bed dipped down at that moment, the springs protesting lightly as the girl laid down. Sari smiled, tapping her nails on the floor. She could wait as long as it took until her lovely cousin woke up. Her target: Sari.

…K~S

_The little girl smiled up at him as they ran through the sandy streets. She giggled, her laugh like chimes. He laughed with her._

"_Catch me if you can!" the girl challenged suddenly, running away in the opposite direction of him. Ittetsu ran after her. He wouldn't let her escape. He'd made a friend, so he couldn't let her escape. He'd catch up to her. It was the universe telling him he could get her one day, capture her heart, have long conversations without speaking, and see her everyday and feel good even in bad times._

_Then it was the universe telling him he couldn't catch up by making him trip and fall. Yet she kept running. The impact of the fall split his vision, and there were two girls running away. Two Saris. They were identical, except one was light, and one was dark. He tried to find_ his _Sari between the pair before he fainted, before it was too late_. _It was too late: the Saris, one light and one dark, and merged together, and he wasn't sure which one he loved, or if to love his true love, he'd have to love both of them_.

Ittetsu woke up slowly. His muscles were worn but his chakra felt almost replenished.

Then he realized he was on the floor in his family room. He wasn't so sure about how and why but he shrugged off the paranoia about it and got to his feet.

In his kitchen, which was one of the biggest rooms in his whole house – since his parents were more like chefs than ninja – he found his breakfast on the island.

He ate quickly, knowing one of the best ways to replenish lost chakra was to eat.

"Ittetsu?" he heard and jumped. His mother, who'd walked in very quietly on him, in his defense, was considered a very pretty lady. Even though people knew she was happily married with a kid, men still gazed after her and flaunted around her.

Fortunately she didn't return the interest.

"I saw you outside earlier with that girl, uh, _Sari_, Kashike's daughter." His mother, Nae, said in a voice that was motherly and sweet. "Was she helping you practice?"

Ittetsu ate a big bite out of his breakfast, hoping his mother wouldn't try and look for any possible signs of a relationship.

Finally he finished chewing and nodded lamely.

Nae smiled. "I feel proud and pity for that girl. She worked so hard, and I think she really scratched herself up."

Ittetsu frowned. "What? Really?" he asked as guilt crept over him. His mother nodded in answer.

"You should go see if she'd okay, _oh_," she turned and shuffled through her massive kitchen before returning to him with a medium sized bundle wrapped over a few times. "Do you mind giving this to Kashike while you're at it?"

Ittetsu, out of teenage rage at the thought of doing his mothers chores, almost said 'no' but caught himself and nodded.

Nae smiled. "Thank you, Ittetsu." She kissed his forehead and walked out, most likely to pick up ingredients from the market, or go talk about gossip with some of her 'Woman friends'. Ittetsu wasn't all that interested.

The boy shoveled his meal up, cleaned the dish and put it away quickly. He grabbed the bundle under his arm and fled his house. He needed to know if Sari was okay.

…K~S

She waited, her fingers twitching and her heart beating. She could tell by how the mattress had stopped moving that the girl was asleep. Sari smiled, sliding herself from under the bed.

Her sleeping cousin snored softly, managing to look like an angel, and cuddled up next to her pillow.

Sari smiled. Her job would be easy.

She pulled a needle from a pouch on her hip and slid it close to the girls' neck. Sari smiled and with a flick of her wrist, punctured the skin there.

Her cousins' body somehow went even limper than it was in sleep. She paled, her lips loosing color and her skin rapidly going cold.

Sari stroked her cousins' hair, but there was no love in the gesture.

"Thank you, dear Sari," she whispered. "For being _so_ easy to kill."

…K~S

Ittetsu walked down the streets of Suna with a loose (but still there) scowl on his face.

He wished that Sari had told him she was getting hurt. He felt incredibly guilty, being that the love of his life was injured at his hand… or chakra.

_Sari_, he thought. _She's always digging daggers in me_. He stopped walking, his scowl angrier. _No_, he thought stubbornly. _I_ love _Sari, so I shouldn't be thinking that she's hurting me in any way._

He walked forward, his thoughts taut, and headed the rest of the way to Sari's abode.

The home Sari lived in always seemed to have a warm glow to it, like a tree decorated and lit for Christmas. He felt that her life was like a holiday, warm and fun and together.

Ittetsu's home state was more strained: his father working whenever he got the chance, his mother always slightly troubled by the number of her admirers, and him, grumpy, slightly unwilling, and lost on where his love life stood.

He knocked on the door of Sari's home, waiting as he heard light footsteps dance across the floor and to the door.

It slid open to Kashike, who was armored with an apron, thin gloves, and a bandana.

"Uh, is Sari home?" he asked, shifting uncomfortably.

Kashike nodded, turning around and padding farther inside the house. "Sari!" she called. Turning to him she said, "You can come in if you like."

"My mom sent this with me," Ittetsu said, giving her the bundle as he walked into the warm house. It was nice and cozy, the sandy walls familiar and but the scenery new.

Sari walked into the room, her presence brightening Ittetsu instantly.

"Mom," she smiled yawning. "You woke me up!"

Kashike pointed to Ittetsu wordlessly, and Sari brightened, her eyes shining. She didn't often look at anyone like that, not since Abiru. Seeing her looking at him like that now made Ittetsu both confused but tremendously happy.

"Ittetsu," Sari practically squealed, throwing herself at him.

Kashike watched on for a moment in confusion, but smiled warmly and walked into another room to give them privacy.

"I came to see if you were alright. My mom said she noticed that you'd gotten a little hurt while we practiced earlier."

Sari blushed, averting her eyes shyly. "I guess I might be a little bruised, but they haven't come up yet."

Ittetsu frowned. "But my mom said you got scratched up."

She blushed harder. "I did… uh, around my legs," she said, pointing to her thigh, which was covered.

Ittetsu shrugged. "I'm really sorry, Sari."

She shook her head, "I don't mind." She bit her lip lightly, bringing the soft pink of her lips to Ittetsu's attention.

Swallowing he leaned back a little, realizing just how close she was to him.

"Listen… I kind of wanted to talk to you. Can we go somewhere?" Sari started, looking hopefully up at him.

"Um, but we have to meet up with the Sensei soon." Ittetsu reminded her.

Sari sighed. "Alright."

Together they left to go see Hayate at the practice fields.

…K~S

Ittetsu was wary of Hayate's critical gaze watching him. The sun seemed to bare down on him hard and his clothes seemed heavy on him. This was it, the difference between ninja and academy student, pride and ridicule, Sari and some other chick in the near future with no other real options.

He tried concentrating his chakra, feeling it within his body.

Sari watched on, waiting with a patient gaze, like a cats' almost.

Ittetsu flexed his chakra out to cover and surround him.

"Throw something at me!" he shouted.

Hayate, always stocked with something to throw, chucked a hardcopy of _Twilight_ at the boy, and watched with interest as it bounced off the chakra shield.

"Very unoriginal, Ittetsu," Hayate chastised.

"Did you expect anything more?" he asked coolly, his nerves set on edge.

Hayate rolled his eyes. "I'm easy to please, I guess. I wont send you back to the academy."

Ittetsu smiled. "Sari, I'm not going back to-" he stopped when she tackled him again, wrapping her slender arms around his waist. She pecked him on the cheek, close to the edge of his mouth.

Ittetsu tried to smile back but, realizing his 'smile' was probably wry and stupid looking, blushed bright red. Well, he blushed because of the kiss too.

"Aw, young love. I remember those days," Hayate sighed.

Ittetsu cringed out of habit and stepped out of Sari's embrace. "No, we're not-" Sari stepped up to him and stopped his words with her lips.

Hayate sighed again, and walked away, leaving them alone, and reminiscing about his own love life.

…K~S

Sari was running. She still felt drowsy, but was recovering each second from the fear of _her_ with Ittetsu.

She could remembered suddenly feeling sharp nails pressing into her skin, cold hands holding her down to the bed. Then she saw a blurry flash of the girl's face. The other Sari was back, and, from the nice note the girl'd left her, she was after Ittetsu.

Sari felt tears coming to her eyes when she thought about it. If only she knew why the other Sari was after her Ittetsu.

She had a hunch they'd be at the training field close to the ninja academy.

She was already close to the sandy training grounds. She'd make it, she'd find Ittetsu and tell him of her cousins' treachery.

The training grounds were in sight before she knew it. And so were a couple, kissing like there was no tomorrow, under the sun.

Watching _that_ Sari and _her_ Ittetsu kiss was like watching a movie, not a romantic one, however, but instead a horror film.

Sari fell to her knees, watching them, and feeling as if she'd lost. So that was her cousins' motive: take Ittetsu for her own, and leave none for her.

Sari bit back the tears, anger and frustration building in her stomach. Her heartbeat hard in her chest, an unfamiliar, foreign adrenalin rush built up in her slender frame.

"SARI!" she screamed. Ittetsu and her cousin froze. Her cousin whipped her head around, wide eyes taking in Sari.

The other Sari backed off of Ittetsu, who was gap mouthed and immensely confused.

"Oh, hello again, _my dear cousin_," the other Sari gushed mockingly, holding her hands over her heart.

Sari roared, grabbing a kunai from her weapons holster. She sped to her cousin, energy and rage fueling her.

The other Sari rolled her brown eyes and pulled a kunai slowly from her holster as well.

When Sari collided with her double, the knife and the blocked knife set off sparks. Sari glared at her cousin, grinding her teeth to dust. The other Sari smiled, the muscles of her arm tight and shaking slightly to hold her off with only one arm and a kunai.

"Are we really doing this, Sari?" her cousin asked, pushing hard against her so Sari fell back.

Her cousin smiled as formed a few hand seals with ease. "Summoning scroll: Kissaki!"

Sari shuffled back and to her feet when her cousin summoned a long, sharp sword that caught the shine of the sun on its' clean blade. Her cousin positioned the blade in front of her body, putting all her power to the sword.

Sari swallowed hard, realizing that her single kunai wouldn't be enough to cut it.

She opened the pouch with the poison needles on her hip, directing her chakra through her fingertips and into the pouch where the energy licked the poison needles and worked to get a hold. "Saboten Hari," she breathed, directing the cactus needles into the air.

Her cousin glanced up warily at the waiting volley of poison. "That's very much like my senbon abilities. The same ability that helped me to knock you out earlier, do you remember?" she laughed, swinging her sword up to the waiting needles. "Rain down and try to stick me. I _dare_ you to try."

Sari ground her teeth together, widening her fingers so the needles spread out in the air, all of them trained on her enemy.

"Scared?" the other Sari asked, and then started running.

She was fast, her sword balanced above her head. Sari focused on not dropping the needles as she jumped back from the down swing of the sword.

When she was out of reach Sari sent down a volley of needles.

Her cousin looked up with wide eyes and quickly deflected them with her sword. Sari flipped back to avoid the needles that had aimed at her from the deflect.

The other Sari cursed, glaring at her Kissaki, which was decorated in the liquid poison that bled down the long sword towards the hilt. She flung it aside, precariously close to Ittetsu, who was still there, watching on in awe and confusion.

"You poisoned my sword!" Sari hissed, pointing to the discarded weapon.

"You kissed my love." Sari argued.

The other Sari frowned. "He loved me first. I was the first person to show him such kindness. He fell in love with me, and _thought_ he was in love with you," she crossed her arms over her chest. "But was in love with me all the while."

"That makes _no_ sense!" Sari seethed, glancing at Ittetsu, who's gone pale. His eyes, staring at her with a sudden emptiness made her heart skip a beat. "This is stupid. I've loved him ever since the ninja academy when I was younger."

The other Sari laughed. "Well I loved him even before that." She turned back to Ittetsu. "It's that right, hon'?"

Ittetsu looked up at her, shaking his head. "That was _you_, wasn't it! You were that girl the day Abiru-"

"The jerk…" the other Sari glanced at the girl, smiling mockingly, "That this one all so willingly dated. Yes, love, it was. Tragically, a day later my dreaded parents took me away, leaving you with this oblivious, stupid girl."

Ittetsu seemed to break out of his spell. "No, she isn't a stupid girl. She might be oblivious sometimes, but Sari is very smart."

The other Sari smiled, "Yes, I _am_ very intelligent, aren't I?"

Ittetsu frowned. "I meant her," he said, pointing to Sari. His eyes were still confused and his frown ever existent.

"But, Ittetsu, you _love_ me!" the other Sari cooed, smiling.

"I did." Ittetsu whispered. "But I also fell in love with Sari. I've been growing up with Sari, spending time with her, training, going on missions! What have I ever done with you, besides run around and play on the swing?"

The other Sari became red with anger and disbelief at his remark, balling up her fists. "You're lying!" she accused.

"I'm not." Ittetsu whispered, looking at Sari who was gazing back at him.

Then the other Sari started screaming. It was a high-pitched sound that went to the throat towards the end.

"SHE _ALWAYS_ GETS EVERYTHING!" She screamed, pulling at her hair. "SHE GETS THE FAMILY, THE LIFESTYLE, THE _GUY_! SHE THINKS SHE'S BETTER!"

"I don't think that, and it's not _my_ fault you were born into a non-ninja family!" Sari shot back.

The other Sari screamed louder. "I _HATE_ YOU! _DIE_!" she launched herself in the air, spinning around and dropping with her foot over Sari's head.

Sari fell to the ground, the impact of the kick creating a crater in the ground.

She gasped at the pain, and looked up to see her cousin standing over her, smiling. "You aren't the only one with chakra threads," she hissed, dragging the poisoned Kissaki back to her hands with her chakra.

The poison glistened on the blade, and Sari breathed hard, trying to get away from the weapon and it's wielder.

Then the other Sari stabbed down.

…K~S

Ittetsu loved them both, the light that lit his day, and the dark that soothed him to sleep. But he'd never loved them as _one person_. The light Sari he loved in subtle ways, smiling at her and no one else, and making sure to tell her 'hi' before anyone else could.

With the dark Sari, he loved her with a passion, tangible and complicated, with kisses that left him confused afterwards.

They were totally different people, and he loved them both, but when he jumped over Sari to take the damage of the blade sliding through his back and his stomach, he'd singled all his love to the light, and turned his back on the dark.

He remembered faintly thinking that Sari was a dagger that kept on stabbing. It was ironic, in a way, being that his body was then penetrated by the Kissaki blade.

Sari also got stabbed, since the long sword had slid effectively through him, and then a little bit into Sari, but her damage wasn't nearly as horrid.

He laughed softly in Sari's shocked face. "I love you, Sari. I always have." He finally said, falling to his side with the blade still lodged inside him.

The other Sari stared in horror at the catastrophe. She screamed into her hands, tears in her eyes. She slunk away slowly, her eyes trained on Ittetsu's bleeding form, before she ran away, fleeing like the vicious animal she was.

Sari sat up, ignoring the pain in her stomach. The muscle felt torn and the flesh was cut deeply open.

She put her hands on Ittetsu's shoulder, trying to stomach her nausea and fear. She grasped the handle of the sword and carefully pulled it out. Ittetsu wretched as she pulled it out, his spine and limbs curving in a broken way.

Sari felt tears come to her eyes. Closing her eyes she pressed her hand to Ittetsu's wound.

"HEEEELLLP!" she screamed. "HEEEEEELLLLP!"

"Sari," Ittetsu moaned, his fingers twitching in the sand.

She bent over him, holding his hands in one of hers, the other pressed to the wound. She tried not to concentrate on the hot crimson blood seeping through her fingers.

"I'm here," she breathed, kissing his fingers. They were cold and pale. His whole body was loosing color, and his lips were looking blue. Sari called out help again, hoping someone could hear her. It was too dangerous moving him now.

"I love you," he whispered again, half in and half out of consciousness.

"I love you," she breathed out shakily, gasps catching in her breath. "Stay with me."

"I will," Ittetsu breathed as a few chunin jumped into sight. They all wore similar expressions of shock.

One of them picked Ittetsu up and was gone in the next minute. Sari looked after him in horror. "Where'd he _go_?" she panicked.

A woman with gray eyes put her hands on Sari's shoulders, steadying her. "My friend took him to the hospital. He has to be treated quickly." The woman glanced down at Sari's bloody hands. "They'll do everything they can."

The third chunin came into sight, his eyes hard. "Can you tell us what happened?"

Sari breathed out hard. "My… my cousin was going to s-stab me," she stammered, realizing late that she was shaking. "B-but…" she shuddered, tears bursting from her eyes. She sobbed, holding herself. All of her anger towards Sari, and her left over strength for helping Ittetsu vanished. "It-tetsu… he stopped her."

The chunin exchanged looks. "Are you saying a Sand ninja did this?" the woman asked.

"S-she lives in one of the villages in the Wind at a nearb-by oasis, but it isn't a n-ninja village," she explained, placing her face in her hands.

"And yet she did so much damage!" the man whispered, but Sari heard.

"T-that's the only thing she's good at." Sari hissed, hating her cousin, and hating herself for not being able to take her down.

…K~S

She raced down the streets, fear and regret suffocating her like a coiling rattle snake, deaths kiss in the form of venomous fangs at her throat.

She remembered the feel of the Kissaki traveling through him as she pushed down. Granted, her blade had hungered for different blood at the time.

Sari cursed, tears in her eyes. The only way she'd be okay with it all was if perhaps her annoying cousin really _did_ get sliced, and perhaps if the poison on the blade infected her, and killed her.

She tried to focus on that: her cousin dying, her gravestone being set, and ran into a boy walking out of a shop.

"Sorry," she grumbled.

"No, it's-" he stopped. "Oh, it's _you_!" he muttered. The boy was fairly tall with strong shoulders and curly brown hair. He had a nice enough face, but the annoyance in his gaze ruined the view.

"Huh? Oh. You must be Abiru." She said stiffly. A thought crossed her mind then. Glancing up at him, she smiled weekly. "Um, Abiru. I've been meaning to tell you something. Something I should have said _long_ ago."

…K~S

**DRAMATIC ENDING! First off, sorry if this story was a little gory. I'm kind of sensitive about cuts and stuff like that, so I got a little queasy writing this, but I'm keeping it that way. If you don't remember who Abiru is, I strongly recommend you reread the first few chapters, because I'm bringing him back, and I don't feel like setting up his character again (sorry, I'm just lazy like that). ALSO!: when **_**that**_** Sari stabs Sari with the needle while she sleeps it was temporary death, not real death(Zabuza Haku arc anyone?) Was this story worth the wait? Was it confusing around the parts with the 'Sari' and the 'other Sari, cousin, other girl, **_**that**_ **Sari and… what else?' I'm going to construct a nickname for the next chapter so the two will be more distinguishable. WAIT! THEY AREN'T GOING TO BE IN THE NEXT CHAPTER! The next chapter is **_**all**_** about Gaara and Matsuri in Konoha enjoying each other. I need suggestions on something they could do while there: I'm going to try to make these chapters a lot longer, so any suggestions I get, unless they're real nasty, will be put in. Please review and read and Yup – Keomi~Sage **


	7. Chapter 7

**I have a bad feeling that this is kind of late, but technically I didn't set up a date for publishing, so I guess I'm not late: I know, excuses excuses! **

**Warning: will get gross and educational: P.S. Warning: if you don't want to give birth to anything, the gross stuff wont be very educational now will it? P.S.S. WARNING: Gaara is seriously OOC in this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto, if I did I wouldn't put as many fillers in (sorry, I'm just raving is all)

Chapter 7

Gaara and Matsuri Have a Baby

Temari is many things: lovely, not a stick like a lot of Konoha girls (no offense), a blunt wind user, and considerably strong.

Matusri is many things: lovely, kind of a stick like a lot of Konoha girls (no offense), a blunt rope javelin user, and stronger than she was the first time we saw her in the anime.

Gaara is: Gaara + a little OOC

…K~S

Matsuri was dying. She pretended not to be, but it's hard to escape the fact that it is _hot_ in the desert and sometimes having two accomplished and experience dessert crossers as your travel buddies was a pain.

Or as Shikamaru would but it: _troublesome_.

Gaara slowed his pace a few times to walk beside her, while Temari walked strongly on, but he was kind of impatient (I don't necessarily think an impatient Gaara is ooc).

Anyway, the poor girl was dying.

"Um, Te-Temari. Do you mind if we stop a minute?" Matsuri asked. They'd been traveling nonstop for about 3 hours, and the sun was being unimaginably cruel.

Temari clenched her fists in frustration. "Come on Matsuri! You are a representative of Suna's kunoichi! Show some composure and discipline!"

Gaara winced mentally and fell back into step with Matsuri who was now face palming while half bent over in exhaustion.

"I'm sorry about Tem-"

"DON'T APOLOGIZE FOR ME!" Temari interrupted.

**Side note:**_** Temari has been very uptight ever since Gaara's abduction. She is now obsessed about being seen as strong and able. She was really upset about how she couldn't do anything, and hopes for Matsuri, who's kind of like a sister to her, to be successful and never have to feel the way she felt. Temari has high hopes for Matsuri, but doesn't feel like telling her just yet.**_

Gaara sighed and hugged the slightly sweaty Matsuri, despite the sweat because he's tough like that.

"You've only been to Konoha once, right?" he asked.

Matsuri nodded weakly.

"It'll be a nice change from the desert, not as much convenient sand incase of emergency, but that is why I have the gourd." Gaara said, trying to take Matsuri's attention of the heat.

"And there will be _water_," Matsuri whispered dreamily.

Gaara offered her his canteen. Temari saw this, but decided to let him be romanticish this time.

Matsuri sipped the water, careful not to chug it down.

Luckily, the little bit of water went a long way, and Matsuri shot up straight. "I feel great, _arigato_, Gaara!"

"You're welcome." He said. Temari rolled her eyes.

"Oi, Gaara. I've been thinking about the first stop!" Temari said, breaking the romanticish moment. "We should go to the famous Korakuen shopping district and luxury resort village."

"Shopping!" Matsuri squealed, letting her inner girly girl shine through.

"Don't forget the spas and saunas and massages and-"

"No," Gaara said, cutting his big sis off.

Temari stopped walking to glare at her littlest brother. "What was that?"

"No." Gaara repeated, not even fazed by the daggers Temari was shooting at him.

The wind style ninja's hands itched towards her fan, which she used often to correct her enemies and opponents.

"Gaara…" Temari said, nice and slow. "It's on the way. I'm only saying we spend 2 days-"

"Temari, I said no. Our trip to Konoha isn't just some vacation. I'll be discussing matters with their Hokage, you'll be coordinating plans with Nara and the other ninja representatives and-"

"What about your girlyfriend?" Temari asked, thumbing at Matsuri, who had steadily inched a yard away from the two stubborn siblings, just out of detonation range.

Gaara would have blushed if it hadn't been OOC of him. "She can train with the other genin and learn the competition. She and her team are going to be in the chunin exams after all."

"So," Temari said, crossing her arms. "You'll be talking to the worlds most beautiful hag for the whole trip, and Matsuri will be talking to her future enemies. But what about your time…" she smiled. "To-get-her?"

Gaara did blush this time. "We can bond when we get back to Suna."

"By then you'd have a mountain of paper work regarding the village and Matsuri will have to catch up on her missions." Temari said, smiling. _Checkmate_, she thought devilishly.

Gaara sighed in defeat. "Fine we'll go to Korakuen-"

"Yeeeeeah!" Temari whooped, punching the sky in the face.

"-on one condition." Gaara added. Temari feel from the sky, darn that gravity! and sweat dropped.

"Which is?" she asked nervously.

Gaara waved her over, and whispered: "Whenever either shopping or spa-ing is unincluded in Matsuri's schedule, she is mine."

Temari leaned back. "Possessive, aren't you?"

Gaara shrugged, "It is like you said. I'll hardly get to spend time with her."

"Deal, brother." Temari said, shaking his hand. "So, since you didn't add _sauna-ing_ to the list of taboo, I'm guessing you-"

"SHUT UP!" Gaara yelled, covering her mouth and stomping off to catch up with Matsuri. He was red with embarrassment when he reached her.

(By the way, Gaara isn't perverted, don't worry. Temari is, but she's so loveable we over look that!)

…K~S

Korakuen town (this is starting to feel like Pokemon) welcomes Ash Ketchem (is that right? For all my life except for recently I thought his last name was Ketchup), his girly sidekick: May, Misty, or Dawn, pick your favorite, along side Brock: that's the imaginary Kankuro – and Matsuri is Pikkachu (pikka pikka be!)

…K~S

**AN (authors note):**_** Hey-oo everybody, life treatin' you good? It is 2:00AM as I write this, I'm full of Chinese food as my horsepower and I'm in a strange mood and a bit loopy. I don't want to get rid of any passed writing, so I'm going to stop now and continue later. When I write again it will be poetry! POETRY I SAY! **_

…K~S

Korakuen village was small and big at the same time, with earthy wooden buildings with red, blue and green painted roofs and decorations of jade and silver hanging over the old decks.

Matsuri could hardly believe such a place existed in the middle of the desert. She was even more amazed that the two thirds of the sand siblings trio were able to pull together and figure out where the village was in the first place.

Two youngish ladies in red and purple kimonos stood on high sandals at the entrance to the village. They were obviously twins, and obviouslt beautiful.

They were fair blondes with light brown eyes and goddess like figures.

Matsuri hated them and made a point of smiling extra wide and flirtyish with Gaara after the twin in the red kimono started giving him the look.

"Hello," the purple kimono'd one welcomed. "My name is Airi, and this is my younger sister, Akari."

"Welcome to our beautiful village, Korakuen," Akari said, bowing.

"Thank you!" Temari said, smiling widely. "You two look so adorable!"

Matsuri shot Temari a look.

"You are pretty pretty yourself," Airi complimented. "We will be your guides while in our village. Might I ask who you are?"

"I'm Temari of the Village Hidden in the Sand." Temari boasted.

"I'm Matsuri, a genin of the Sand." Matsuri said more modestly.

"I'm Gaara of the Desert." He said out of habit. Temari elbowed him in the ribs. "Oh, and Kazekage."

Akari nearly had a cow and Airi looked pleasantly surprised.

"Shall I arrange something special for the _Kazekage_ and his guests, then?" Airi asked, dutiful and sassy at the same time.

"But I thought the Kazekage was, like, _40_!" Akari voiced her surprise.

"That was the late Kazekage, our father." Temari said, still riding the happy train.

"Aw, I see." Airi said. "You're the 5th Kazekage. Also known as the youngest and most attractive of all the Kazekage."

Matsuri hated Airi.

…K~S

Airi and Akari dropped them off at a luxury inn to get settled and rest for an hour before going to the spas. Actually, just Matsuri and Temari were going to the spas. Gaara was staying at the inn to see if he could take advantage of the peace and sleep.

They shared one suite with three separate rooms and bathrooms.

Temari claimed her room instantly and unpacked her stuff that was stuffed in a small-boxed luggage.

Matsuri and Gaara did the same but at their own paces.

"Well, this is perfect," Temari said happily when the three regrouped in the suites living room. Matsuri sat down on the couch and Temari on the recliner.

"Glad I talked you into it, huh, Gaara?" Temari said, smirking at her little brother who was scowling while studying a small cactus.

"What should we do until the twins pick us up?" Matsuri asked Temari. Both the Sand Siblings heard the jealousy in the young Sand kunoichi's tone when she spoke.

"How about we plan the day out." Temari said. A brochure of Korakuen materialized in her hands. "I want to go to the mud spas!"

Matsuri shivered and took the brochure. "How about the facials?"

Temari smirked. "Like this face needs any work," she said, touching her face.

Gaara looked between the two kunoichi. Then he left to his room to try to find some earmuffs and catch up on his sleep.

…K~S

Matsuri sat on the bench in the dressing room. She grit her teeth at the thought of changing in front of all those perfect people. Airi and Akari had no problem stripping out of their kimono's and into the warm fuzzy towels provided.

Temari had been the same way.

No one understood! It was hard when you are self-conscious!

Temari broke away from the laughing group of girls and walked up to Matsuri. "The twins are going to go ahead and get to the mud baths. They said the bath is really relaxing once you get passed the muddy thing."

Matsuri smiled, but it was a sad smile.

"What's up?" Temari asked, sitting down next to Matsuri.

The shorter girl frowned at her knees. "I'm kind of embarrassed to change in front of them." She whispered, glancing at the other girls who were pretty much perfection.

Temari rolled her eyes. "You can't be serious. You're just as pretty. And I thought you were over being shy!"

Matsuri sighed. "I thought I was too."

Temari thought her 5 words were so sad. "Who cares if you have a tiny chest, no curves, spaghetti limbs and brown instead of blond hair?"

Matsuri glared at Temari.

Temari sweat dropped.

"You are super pretty." Temari said.

"You're prettier," Matsuri said, smiling a little.

"I know I am," Temari said, smiling blissfully. "Now, I have an idea for you. Where's your towel?"

Matsuri held up a light blue fuzzy towel.

Temari spread it out and gestured for Matsuri to get up. When she did she used the towel as a shield from the other girls eyes.

"Oh, I see," Matsuri said, smiling. After she'd undressed and taken the towel the girls walked out proudly together.

…K~S

Gaara laid back on the bed, trying to let sleep come to him. Sleep was a foreign thing for the X-Shukaku vessel.

It helped that the room was painted soft, dreamy colors and there was an earthy and floral sent in the room. He could hear distant wind chimes and the trickle of a pool of water.

The red haired ninja sighed softly and fell asleep.

_Yay Gaar-Gaar!_

…K~S

Matsuri shivered in the warm, gooey mud. It was silverish and brown and smelled a little. Temari on the other hand was loving the mud. Airi and Akari talked gossip while they enjoyed their bath.

"T-Temari," Matsuri started, severely grossed out by the mud. "How long is this going to be?"

Temari smiled widely. "An hour!"

Matsuri bit her lip. "And after this is the facials?"

"Nope, after this is the acupuncture!"

Matsuri yelped and Temari laughed. "JK! Next are the massages, then the facials. Then we're going to get Gaara and we, including Airi and Akari, are going to one of the _best_ family restaurants this place has got!"

"But the twins and I aren't apart of your family." Matsuri said.

"Yeah, the twins aren't, but you always have been!" Temari said sweetly.

Matsuri smiled and Temari hugged her, which grossed Matsuri out.

"OK! Alright! I get it, we're family, just stop hugging me!" Matsuri squealed, not OK with being hugged at the moment.

…K~S

"You should have gotten the massage and facial with us!" Temari said too loudly to Gaara, who scowled when two passing men snickered at his expense.

Gaara glared daggers at his sister. His ego had taken a paper cut to the finger.

"Well, not facials I guess, but the massage would have been good for you," Temari mediumed "You're too uptight." She added, hitting his arm causally with the right amount of pressure as pay back for being a downer. Temari was still riding the clouds in the sky.

Akari stepped in and put a heavy arm around Matsuri's shoulder. "Sooo," she said in a voice that instantly had Matsuri suspicious of the gorgeous blonde.

"Yeah?" Matsuri asked, trying to keep her voice light. She didn't want Akari to think she didn't like her, even though she kind of didn't.

"I'm getting the feeling that either you and the Kazekage are a thing or you are hopelessly chasing after him." She said in a soft voice so she wouldn't be overheard.

"We _are_ a thing," Matsuri told her, glancing at Gaara. She wished that she had him to confirm their love but he was busy following a one-sided conversation Airi was telling about the town.

Akari frowned in a concerned, -Oh-she-is-_so_-in-denial way that was enough to make most girls' blood boil. Matsuri wasn't an exception.

"It's true." She hissed, crossing her arms over her chest.

Akari sighed. "Sorry, I understand. You're cute, sure, but the Kazekage…" she made a dry smacking sound that for reasons unknown very deeply annoyed Matsuri. "He's such a distant person, right. Kind of the silent lone wolf type of guy. Most girls find that attractive. They find the secretiveness interesting and sexy. _Plus_ he's got wealth and a title, so you _know_ he can provide!" Akari rolled her eyes dreamily. "But having a secretive guy can blow up in your face."

"What do you mean?" Matsuri asked.

"That stubborn composure that you wish you could break… ever had that, hon'?" Akari asked, examining her perfect nails, painted bloody red to go with her kimono.

Matsuri glanced at Gaara. _Yes_, she _had_ had that while with him. Even now most of the time they were together he was loving, but guarded.

"And he must have _tons_ of wealthy, attractive beyond belief girls chasing after him," Akari murmured with a finger to her chin.

"Umm…" Matsuri remembered, before their relationship was more obvious, Gaara had relentless fangirls. Now he had fangirls who swooned over him from a respected distance and in their daydreams.

"He's just a man, even if Kazekage. I wonder if one girl…" Akari chuckled, "Per say a slightly over average tall girl… long sporty legs and short chic glossy black hair…" she thought. "And light eyes a color close to the Kazekage's, perhaps. What if that girl… named Sugureta, had ran into the Kazekage and they'd become friendly?"

"He wouldn't," Matsuri whispered.

"How do you know?" Akari asked, raising a perfect brown eyebrow. "From what I've heard, ninja aren't just kunai and jutsu. They are tactful and deceptive." Akari glanced at Gaara who walked, oblivious to the girls' conversation, out of hearing range. "Well, you're cute, I guess. Nice eyes, thin but not really curvy." Akari shrugged. "Your voice has an endearing nasal quality to it." Matsuri touched her smallish nose. "I suppose it was do to a childhood thing, like tonsil removal.

Matsuri gulped. "Maybe," she lied, biting her lip.

She looked up at Gaara, who still didn't notice her, and felt undeniably ugly.

…K~S

Gaara walked into Matsuri's room a half hour after arriving back at the inn. He was generous to give her a little time to get settled and work up an explanation for what had happened at the restaurant.

Matsuri looked up from where she lay on her side tucked under the heavy sheets of the bed.

"Is Airi alright?" she asked after a moment.

Gaara sighed, staying where he stood at the door. "She insists that she is, but that cant be completely true since-"

"Since the damn marshmallow burnt off her eyebrows, I know!" Matsuri finished, pushing her head into her hands.

For desert the waitress had brought them on-the-house marshmallows, chocolate and crackers. Matsuri was still getting over how busty the waitress was, and was sloppy as she stabbed the spongy sweat through the stick and let it roast.

It seemed that at the time Matsuri had a quarrel with everyone. The waitress for being so womanly. Temari for saying she was pretty and apart of the family. Airi for being so damn _peppy_. Akari for putting the thought of a cheating Gaara in her head. And Gaara, for being guilty until proven innocent.

She pushed the marshmallow into a small fire that licked at the other marshmallows. Temari, who was still impatient as always, blew chakra filled wind at her marshmallow and caused the flames around it to uproar slightly and catch fire to the sweat treat. Airi's marshmallow had been helped out in the process. The two happy blondes high fived and watched their 'mallows burn until perfection.

After the two, Gaara and Akari's caught close to the same time. Akari smiled at Gaara. "Fate smiles down upon us," she cheered before glancing at Matsuri who averted her gaze.

_Burn_, she hissed as she glared daggers into the untoasted 'mallow. The pressure from the day built up in her, causing her to snap. She flung herself back and swung the marshmallow out of the fire, somehow managing to make it catch flame as she did so. However, momentum and gravity weren't on her side… or Airi's.

The flame coming from the 'mallow licked at the thin hairs of her right eyebrow. Luckily the flame didn't catch on her X-flawless skin, but she'd browned and her right eyebrow, along with those delicate pale blond lashes of her right eye, were gone.

Gaara sighed, back to the present. "Come, take a walk with me," he said. Matsuri shook her head, pulling the covers back to reveal her camisole and sleep short shorts as explanation. She pulled the covers back up at the first wake of cold.

"Then change into something warm. This is important." Gaara said.

Matsuri looked up at him worriedly. "Are we okay?" she asked, her eyes afraid.

Gaara's lips twitched up, but otherwise only his eyes showed his feelings. "Don't think so negatively, Matsuri. I don't intend to end our relationship."

Matsuri nodded, and got up to get dressed. Gaara left and waited outside until she came out in long pants that hugged her tones legs warmly and a hoodie over her camisole.

The couple walked out of the inn, the lobby empty except for a lanky/hunky teenager who was reading a comic.

The night was cold, so the nightlife was limited to a few people hustling home to get warm. It was nice and quiet, more elegant than Suna, but not exactly better. Too perfect, perhaps.

Gaara led her over a small cobblestone bridge that crossed a thin trickling creek with fat loosely set rocks that were colored from white to black, blue to red, and wampum to chinchilla.

"This is nice," Matsuri said to break the silence, though she'd been happy walking in silence close beside Gaara.

He responded with a thin hum.

"So," Matsuri began carefully. "What is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Gaara didn't answer at first, but then nodded as if confirming something. "Do you know what love is, Matsuri?"

The girl blinked in surprise. Before she could answer Gaara spoke again. "I'm not speaking of parental love, or friendly love. I speak of the love a happily married couple have."

"I think it has to do with devotion and trust." Matsuri said.

"You are right, but so wrong, Matsuri." Gaara told her as he gazed into her surprised eyes. "Love like that, I believe, is in a way selfish and utterly unselfish at once. It leaves room for forgiveness, lust, and a future. Because true love is something too hard to come by. Once you've found it, you want it to be yours forever."

Matsuri smiled nodding.

"And if that love is taken from you, the bond is not severed." Gaara said surely. "You wish to stay with them, and your body knows it. It cries out to your lost half, and finally when it can take no more, it commits a suicide and leaves the body you once had empty."

Matsuri barely noticed that they'd stopped walking.

"That is why ninja must be composed and secretive." Gaara said. "If you give hints to who of the group is your love, the enemy would cause harm and death comes to your loved one in battle to get to you. In the end you can only blame love for the death." His breath came out broken. "And with that loss you are already dead."

"A beautiful way to kill." Matsuri whispered.

Gaara nodded and they locked eyes, black night to cloudless blue day. "That's why I-"

The sound of pain without words coursed through the slate gray night.

Gaara and Matsuri froze, their hearts stopping. Somewhere someone was in trouble.

…K~S

Temari lay on her stomach on her bed and wrote carefully what her heart felt. A letter to Shikamaru, telling him of her day and status among other things in strong, sure writing that expressed her personality.

When she was done she signed the letter in her name and drew a poor picture of herself in a chibi-esque state with overlarge spiky ponies and longer lashes than she owned.

Temari kissed the letter, looking it over, and tore it up. She'd finally gotten off the bliss train and had crash-landed into the gates of reason and reality.

Shikamaru Nara was a long distance relationship with an unhappy ending. She was 3 years older than he, a strike to her ideals for a perfect boyfriend who was indeed older than she. And she could never tell how much love he had harbored for her, since he never seemed willing to show it.

Yet, what was this feeling? A hope and curiosity in the back of her mind.

Temari chuckled and shook her head, grabbing some more paper and spilled her guts about her insecurities and confusion concerning their relationship. Afterwards she ripped it up to pieces and wrote a new note on a small, humble page.

'_I miss you, but I wont be for long. See you soon._

_Love, Temari_

_P.S. – FYI: you'd had better make this trip special for me or else!_

_Blood and Guts,_

_Loving, Carefree, Drop-dead gorgeous me'_

Temari smiled and prepared the letter to be delivered ahead of her. It might not be pure love she had for Shika, nor was her relationship perfect, but that didn't matter.

As long as she wore the pants in the relationship, she was kind of OK with it.

…K~S

Gaara and Matsuri pinpointed the sounds of distress to be from an old and empty out of season chicken and cow barn. It was a rather small, unimpressive barn with plain bare wood that was tagged and nature beaten.

When they walked inside the sounds of the beams supporting the structure groaned. It was sort of like Atlas in the myths holding the world on his shoulders while kneeling over on foot and knee. Wow, that was one gnarly kink in the neck.

On the top floor of the barn the sound of panting and pain echoed over their heads.

Gaara and Matsuri braced themselves, expecting a twisted, bleeding body, or a genjutsu set to mega creepy.

What they found was a medium sized female dog laying on her side. Her flanks were swollen and sickly looking, her muzzle streaked with gray, showing that she was elderly and too weak for what was happening to her.

Matsuri put a hand over her mouth and watched as the dog glanced at them, the eyes glazed and tired. And scared.

When Matsuri had been younger, their family owned a dog that was pregnant, and her mother had let her stay in the room while the birth was happening. In the end the mother dog passed away from exhaustion and Matsuri had to give the puppies up immediately since the pups needed milk. Milk didn't come easily from dead bodies.

Matsuri sat by the dog and ran a hand over the short, worn fur. This wasn't a nice, elegant dog like she'd owned, but instead a mutt that belonged to no one.

In a way she felt it was perfect and nice. The humble mother dog giving birth to humble puppies in a very humble old barn.

In Korakuen town, perfection had become boring, and little moments like the one they were experiencing were like miracles.

"Gaara," Matsuri said, her voice even and determined. "We are going to see these puppies."

Gaara lost composure for a moment, hesitating. "Uh… sure, Matsuri."

"So," she said carefully. "I need you to take all manly pride you have, all the ego you've built up in your 16 years. You need to see your title and rank in the ninja world… just take all of that, and kick it in the balls."

Gaara was speechless.

"This is a womans' job, and as the man in this situation you need to stay the hell out of my way!"

Gaara's mouth hung wide opened, but he moved back out of her way, watching Matsuri sit by the dog's side. She cleared the area near the female dogs back legs and stripped off her jacket to lay it over the dusty old wood.

Gaara watched amazed as Matsuri didn't even seem fazed as sickly liquid trailed from the dog to her jacket.

"Is she alright?" Gaara asked, feeling a bit helpless. Surprisingly he'd done what Matsuri told him and his manly pride was doubled over in pain from the swift kick it had taken.

Matsuri nodded. "I think I remember my mother telling me that the dark discharge means the thingy was broken."

Gaara's respect and admiration for Matsuri wavered when she said 'thingy'. He looked at her questioningly.

"Um… oh, _placenta_, that's it." She remembered.

Gaara nodded and turned back to the dog who's flanks where rising and falling hard, trying to push the little pups inside her out. To his discomfort the dog's lowers were being slightly disturbing.

"I think it's going well," Matsuri said, not even minding the greenish fluid or disturbing labor caused activity happening. Then she gasped and shuffled back a little from the dog

"What?" Gaara asked, but was silenced, while being very sickened and disturbed, as a pup was given birth to. The mother dog somehow managed to swing herself around and nipped and licked at the amniotic sack that the pup was somehow born inside of.

Poor Gaara, with his manly pride gone, gagged, turning his head completely around so he wouldn't have to see such a thing.

"Gaara!" Matsuri hissed in slight disbelief upon seeing her boyfriend turned completely around from the sight of beauty and life.

He glanced back at her, his cheeks blushing. "Was that the only one?" he asked.

Matsuri shook her head. The pup was now out of the sack and nestled next to his mothers' warm belly.

"Shouldn't you keep the little dog away from the mother dog while she has the others?" Gaara asked. Oh, poor naive Gaara.

Matsuri rolled her eyes. "She's female. She'll manage perfectly fine. Unlike a male."

Gaara frowned. That was another cruel kick to his pride.

The next pup was small and was out of its sack and nestled next to his brother to drink warm puppy milk.

After about 20 minutes, the next came, a female who was a little bit bigger this time, matching size with the biggest male.

Matsuri smiled at the strong female before turning her attention back to the other. The poor dog had perhaps one last pup left. Her flanks heaved and her sore neck was limb and heavy against the ground. Her labored panting sounded tired and just… _done. _

Matsuri swallowed, trying to keep composure.

At least the mother dog was still trying to push, and Gaara had managed to pull his pride back together. Good time, too. Matsuri was done wearing the pants, and she had a feeling that for this last puppy, pants were needed.

"She's going to need help to get the last puppy out." Matsuri said to Gaara, moving around to that she sat on her chins at the mother dogs back. "And… I cant do that."

Gaara looked a little green, understanding what she was asking, but nodded and moved beside Matsuri, who was producing an understandable nervous sweat.

"What do I have to do?" Gaara asked.

"When you see the sack coming out, you need to grab it and pull gently. But first let me get her up." Matsuri said.

She encouraged the dog to maneuver her tired frame up, the pups wailing n protest. Gaara was deep green, and with the red of his hair he seemed festive and ready for Christmas. (that was a joke, kinda sorta).

Once the dog was up Matsuri lifted the tail straight up. "Pull straight out." Matsuri said once the dark of the sack was visible.

**I hope this isn't too graphic for my readers. This is a T for Teen rated fic, right? If it isn't I need to change that. If you're thinking, 'Keomi-Sage, what the hell are you thinking putting this in there?' and thinking that this should be a Disney movie where everyone is tripping and screaming 'They're about to have the puppies!' and then they cut to 5 little golden retriever puppies, no disgusting sack anywhere, all perfect and fluffy – NO! I've always wanted to experience the birth of a dog, but my dog's fixed. Well, I wouldn't want her pregnant anyway! Too cute for that adult stuff. Anyway, I want this part of the fic to scar you, so if you ever have to improvise a dog birth, you have an idea of what's gonna happen. This is supposed to be educational, =D SO GET EDUCATED!**

Matsuri looked at the 4 puppies, all brown white and gray patched, suckling from their mommy. Gaara looked at his hands, which he would scrub many times over, have a nightmare about, and have to live with paranoia for the rest of his life.

It was so worth it.

"Hatsu, Kenkyona, Hokori, and Tobai." Matsuri named. She felt sad and happy. Happy that the pups all looked healthy, yet their mother was….

"What will we do with them? They're too young to move immediately." Gaara said, wanting to comfort her somehow, but it was going to be hard with the gross fluid on his hands. The pups were already becoming confused over their dead mothers body. The milk wasn't flowing for them and the warmth their mother promised to them was fading.

"She gave her life for theirs," Matsuri said, touching the post-labor swell of the elder mother's flank. "The least we can do is nurse these pups and take them someplace warm until we figure out our next move."

"I doubt the inn will allow the dogs." Gaara said softly.

"They aren't dogs, they're newly born preciouses." Matsuri corrected, looking kindly down at the 4 pups. Kenkyona and Tobai were whining and Hokori was padding desperately at her mothers cold belly.

"Fine, but they'll want to be with their mother, whatever's left of her." Gaara said, sympathy and understanding for the pups swirling in his heart. He knew what it was like to be apart of your mothers' death. He looked at his hands again, shivering mentally at what he had done and would never to do again. He was the freaking Kazekage, not a veterinarian!

The slime on his hands caught Matsuri's attention. Getting a plan she yanked his hands and held them towards the pups. Their little puppy noses worked when their eyes couldn't and they wobbled around towards Gaara.

It took the red haired Sand nin a moment to realize what was going on.

Gaara had become the puppy's new mommy.

And thus his manly pride became a woman.

**OK, I am done writing now. I feel unbelievably bad about putting this up so late. I think I'm going to write a chapter for Gaara and Matsuri again, and perhaps we can get out of Korakuen Town and to Konoha sometime soon.**

**GLOSSARY! – Airi: Beloved Jasmine – Akari: Brightness, Light – Sugureta: Superior – Placenta: what do I look like, a science teacher? It's the feeding thingy – Hatsu: First – Kenkyona: Humble (like Wilbur in Charlotte's Web) – Hokori: Pride – Tobai: random name I made up from picking out **_**ai**_** for love and then **_**tob**_** because I can and making Tobai – Gaara's Manly Pride: sorry, cant tell you because it turned into a woman, a very pretty woman, somewhere in between a Jennifer Aniston and Michelle Rodriguez from Avatar, 'member her, the one when I first saw her I was like, 'Man, I bet she's going to die.' 5 hours later: 'Yep, bye Trudy.' Sad face. Read and Review! – Keomi~Sage**

Boy what are you doing dragging a piano

And I say shut up its my art


	8. Chapter 8

**Who is the worst updater in the history of forever? ME! I'm pretty sure there is a month between this chapter and the last. I'm horrible. It is 3.30 AM and I finally finished this. It actually was supposed to have about 4 more pages but I wanted to update already to I'll save that for another chapter. I'm disappointed however because that means 3 GaaraxMatsuri chaps in a row, and this is a Sari/Ittetsu/Matsuri fic. Also we need to figure out what happened to Sari and Ittetsu. Sigh…**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto because I'm a horrible person/updater! =(

Chapter 8

Konoha – Enough Said

Matsuri smiled as she crossed he Konoha gates with Gaara, Temari and their escort. Sadly, she was the only one in a good mood.

Temari was pissed over the fact that Shikamaru hadn't been at the gates to escort her. Gaara was upset but not quiet pissed because he looked uncharacteristically chunky due to 4 sleeping newborns inside of his shirt. Temari had laughed at his situation when she found out, but she was all for keeping the four puppies.

Their escort brought them to the Hokage's house, since it would be easier for Tsunade and Gaara to meet and it was a well-known landmark for anyone who wanted to see the Sand shinobi.

Tsunade and Shizune met the Sand shinobi at the Hokage residence. Shizune looked punctual and cheerful as she held Ton Ton in her arms. The 5th Hokage on the other hand looked bored and dragged from bed.

"Hello Hokage," Gaara said formally. Temari and Matsuri bowed.

"Please, just call me Tsunade," the famed Slug princess said lightly. Even though Gaara was noticeably younger than she, even with her true appearance altered to make her look about 30 years younger, Tsunade wanted to better acquaintance herself with the Kazekage.

"Can we call you Tsunade too?" Matsuri asked cheerfully.

The beautiful Hokage took in the unfamiliar face of young Matsuri.

"Uh… who are you again. Isn't the third member usually male?" Tsunade asked scratching her head.

"She is," Shizune started before faltering. "Um…."

Matsuri laughed lightly. "I'm Matsuri, Gaara's girlfriend." She said, missing Tsunade and Shizune's surprised look at Gaara, and Gaara's uncomfortable look at the nice blue sky.

In Suna they were a couple, but most people, Temari and Kankuro included, didn't know the extent of their relationship. While Matsuri wanted to tell anyone she could about her relationship, Gaara was… _Gaara_ about their relationship.

"Well," Tsunade said bubbly, "I didn't know the young Kazekage had a girlyfriend!"

Gaara mentally sighed. "Well… I do." He said lamely. _Why does everyone call Matsuri my 'Girlyfriend'?_

When the Sand shinobi and the Hokage and her dutiful assistant went inside Tsunade smiled widely.

"So, how did you both meet?" she asked.

"Matsuri was my student." Gaara said.

"Remember, I was captured that one time and the Leaf came to help." Matsuri reminded the busty Hokage.

"Oh, so that was you huh? When did you fall in love? Details!" Tsunade pressed on. Shizune looked at Matsuri and Gaara with poorly hidden interest, and even Temari leaned forward a little. Gaara had never been vocal about his relationship to his elder siblings. Kankuro occasionally dropped a question, but otherwise didn't care.

"I had respect for Gaara since we met, and over time the respect grew and grew until…" Matsuri giggled, holding onto Gaara's arm, which had crooked at his waist to hold up the sliding animals inside his shirt.

"What about you, Gaara?" Temari asked having newfound confidence from her army of 2 women to back her up.

"I'm not sure." He said uncomfortably. One of the pups, Tobai or Hatsu perhaps, woke up and was wriggling a little.

"Oh, come on, Gaara," Tsunade said crossing her arms. "You've got to have some idea."

Matsuri decided to come to Gaara's aid. "We fell in love and warmed up to each other around the same time."

"Well, it's nice that you both found each other." Shizune spoke up. Tsunade, Shizune and Ton Ton hadn't been around when Gaara was a raging psychopath with a bad attitude and daddy issues, but they'd heard about him through the villagers. It was hard to think that anyone with such a violent past could find a heart in a sea of hatred.

After the women were done milking details out of Matsuri and Gaara Shizune showed them to their rooms.

They all got their own rooms in the Hokage residence next to each other. Tsunade arranged for Gaara to meet back up with her at her office later.

Matsuri pulled Gaara to her room as soon as they were alone. The cute brown haired kunoichi led him to her comfy queen sized bed that as a side thought seemed quite big for one lonely soul.

"Take it off," she said eagerly, her fingers on the fabric of Gaara's shirt. The Sand Kazekage removed his heavy gourd and set it gingerly on the ground, unbuckling the vest that held it in place and carefully removed his deep red shirt.

Matsuri caught Hokori from rolling out of the shirt and to the ground. The little puppy squeaked lightly in surprise.

"Sorry little kunoichi dog in-training." She cooed, cuddling with the only sister of the 4 before putting her down.

Matsuri got a small bottle of puppy liquid formula from her bag and lovingly fed the 4 when their turn came.

After they'd had their share Matsuri sculpted a bed for them out of Gaara's shirt, since it had his scent and the pups pretty much saw Gaara as their mommy. (Is Gaara happy about that fact? NOPE!)

"Can you use a different shirt?" Gaara asked as Matsuri lifted Tobai from the bed to the shirt-bed on the ground.

Matsuri glanced up to where Gaara sat on the bed, shirtless with only his grey pants. The two belts he usually wore around his waist hung loosely. She loved that he wasn't even flustered to bare his lean chest to her.

"No," she said softly, turning away to hide her blush. Gaara frowned lightly, sensing something off about the gesture. He slid from the bed to kneel beside his girlfriend. He lightly directed her chin to face him.

The light blush of high pink around her cheekbones was intriguing.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

Matsuri blushed harder, her black eyes flickering down briefly to his bare chest and away.

Getting why Matsuri was embarrassed Gaara too blushed and shuffled back a little.

"Sorry," he said, standing. "I should go change and meet up with the Hokage."

Matsuri shot up to her feet and grabbed his hand. "No…" she blushed deep red now. "Uh, just…" she smiled, standing up on her toes to kiss him lightly. Gaara smiled lightly against her lips.

"Stay?" he murmured against her lips. Matsuri nodded, wrapping her slender arms around his neck. The ends of his spiky red hair, which had grown a little longer since the first time she'd met him, tickled her wrists.

They backed up to the bed and sat, wrapped in each other's arms. Gaara had an arm around her waist and a gentle hand caressing the side of her face, his thumb stroking the soft skin of her cheek.

Matsuri hummed in delight against Gaara's lips, parting her lips and breathing in his sweet breath.

She didn't want this to end, and neither did Gaara. The moment was too great.

Kenkyona's signature squeal of fear while in his puppy dreams brought them out of their kiss.

"Sounds like he needs his mommy," Matsuri teased, running her hand over Gaara's chest.

Gaara smiled lightly, trying not to let the 'Mommy' joke get to him. "I should go get changed and meet up with the Hokage." He told her, yet he kept his forehead pressed to Matsuri's, their bangs brushing and tangling with each other.

"She told you to call her Tsunade." Matsuri reminded him, brushing her nose against his.

"I know…" Gaara hesitated, a slightly worried look crossing his face. It reminded Matsuri of the first time she'd heard his low voice, like sand carried by the wind, she'd thought at the time. "We need to talk… later, Matsuri." He told her. Remembering the content of the last chapter he added: "And I'm not talking about breaking up with you."

Matsuri smiled and mock-pushed him.

"You wouldn't dare break up with me." She watched as Gaara left before going to attend to the puppies.

….K~S

Shizune pinkened when a half naked Gaara left Matsuri's assigned room. She couldn't help but take in how the young Kazekage looked a little disheveled.

Ton Ton, who rested in the woman's arms, squeaked knowingly.

"Uh, there was a hole… in the shirt." He lied, grimacing mentally at a time where he really _had_ a tear in his old clothes and Matsuri had done a horrible job of repairing them, so much that Gaara had to find a new look.

Shizune nodded, but didn't look convinced. Gaara thought to say something else, but settled for ducking his head and heading into his room to get changed.

…K~S

After Matsuri got the puppies to go to sleep for good she changed into lighter clothes that would be better fit for the weather of Konoha and left the Hokage residence.

Her goal? To find some genin and engage them in combat.

She found her way to an almost empty training ground with nice bright green grass. And why was it almost empty?

3 teenagers around her age sat on the grass. There was a tall looking boy with a dark jacket and dark pant with a red triangle mark on either of his cheeks. Beside him was a dog that could eat all of her puppies. The second male was dressed in a long high neck jacket that covered half of his face. The other parts of his face were obscured by messy spiky brown hair and black glasses.

The last of the trio was a pretty girl with a heavy jacket and long navy blueish black hair and a: _I'm shy but still a good person_ aura about her.

"Hello," the girl said as she saw Matsuri approaching.

Matsuri grinned. "Are you ninja of Konoha?" she asked bluntly.

The dog and the boy with the face tat's exchanged a look before both breaking out into dog-like grins.

"Yes, we are." The boy said, standing up with crossed arms. "I am Kiba Inuzuka, and this is my dog, Akamaru." The dog barked a low manly bark that unsettled Matsuri a little.

"By the look of your forehead protector you're from the Village Hidden in the Sand." The guy with the obscured face noticed.

Matsuri pushed out her chest and stood a little taller. If there was anything she learned from the Sand Siblings was to be fierce and start out strong and end strong, even in defeat. That way you got respect for yourself and your village.

"Hello," the girl of the 3 Konoha nin spoke up with a soft voice. "M-my name is Hinata Hyuga." Matsuri looked into the girls' pretty pale pearly eyes. (**p**retty, **p**ale,** p**early :\)

"I am Shino of the Aburame clan." Shino said lightly.

"I am Matsuri of the Village Hidden in the Sand," Matsuri said proudly.

"Are you a chunin?" Hinata asked kindly.

Matsuri felt her face color lightly. "Um… no, but I'm going to the upcoming Chunin exams with my team."

"Cool," Kiba said, still itching for a good fight, even with a genin. "We're chunin, so this will be good practice for you."

"But why aren't your team with you?" Hinata asked, looking around as if they might be off hiding.

Kiba sniffed the air. "She's alone." He said in surprise before turning angry. "Did you think you could take all of us on alone, _genin_?"

Matsuri flinched. "I just wanted to get some training against opponents while I am here."

"Oh," Kiba said, falling back into a causal stance that wasn't so… _pouncing animal_.

"Tell us first," Shino spoke up again. "Who have you trained under? We ourselves have learned from our Sensei: Kurenai Sensei."

Matsuri took a deep breath. She was mostly Gaara's old student, but her jonin squad leader was Hayate: even though Hayate was barely even in the story because the author (mwa _me_) doesn't like writing for him for some reason. And there was Temari and Kankuro to think about, even if she hadn't picked them to teach her. They still instructed her from time to time. Also Baki sensei had given her a few wind jutsu pointers when Gaara and Temari were unable to.

"Um… well I have many teachers." Team 10 (that _is_ their team, right? Yeah, I think it is…) looked at her expectantly. "Well, Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, Baki sensei, and Hayate sensei."

"Uh… well which of them taught you the most?" Hinata tried.

"Ga… uh, our Kazekage." She said, remembering that some people didn't like that she called Gaara by his name.

"So you're Gaara's old student." Kiba said, surprising Matsuri. What did he know?

"A lot of us went off to help you out that one time," Hinata told her.

"Oh, well, thank you from back then." She said.

Kiba grinned widely. And then attacked.

Matsuri was just able to notice the fighting intent in the males slit like eyes and tensed to anticipate the attack.

Kiba reappeared at her feet, an arm ready to knock her to the ground. Matsuri jumped up, but the tip of her foot still was caught and she fell, but managed a roll back to her feet.

"Don't hurt her, Kiba!" Hinata called to her teammate.

Matsuri was lightly offended, but pushed her feelings aside. She was a genin and Kiba was an experienced chunin.

And then there were two Kibas.

"Beast Mimicry!" the original Kiba said cheerfully. The two Kiba's stacked up and now had animal like nails and elongated canines.

Matsuri froze for a second in surprise but quickly snapped out of it. She watched as the two Kiba's started to merge in a spiraling tornado. Matsuri made a quick decision: she wouldn't match strength with them, but instead speed.

**AN: I really don't want to mess up Kiba's ability, because even to this day it confuses me a little. I understand Hinata and Shino's powers a little better because they're more discussed and/or simplistic. Hinata: attacks chakra flow with powerful eyes – Shino: has a pact with insects and they drain chakra and what not. So I'm going to be lazy and put their fight on a cliffhanger. Sorry. :| **

…K~S

Temari was on a manhunt? Can you guess what's in hunting season?

Butterflies? No, she preferred leaner men. Turtles? Too much eyebrow. Deer? You guessed it!

…K~S

Matsuri jumped back as the Kiba's tore up the ground moments from where her feet had been. The blast of earth and wind pushed her back and to the ground. The young Sand kunoichi breathed hard. She'd managed to dodge Kiba's attacks, but she'd used up a lot of energy and chakra. What was unsettling was that she could feel that Kiba wasn't using his full speed and strength.

The only thing she could say to defend herself was that she was just still a genin.

"My turn." Shino said in a bored yet eager way. Matsuri swallowed hard, not wanting to say no to the Aburame, but still she was exhausted. "Don't worry. I'll be quizzing you to see how smart you are. No physical exertion required."

Matsuri smiled. "Alright." So she sat down in the grass with Shino Kiba and Hinata.

"Let's start with an easy question," Shino said calmly. "If you throw a kunai at 110 degrees with the speed of about 20 miles per hour and the wind blows pulling the kunai off trajectory 15 degrees where will the kunai fall from the reference point?"

Matsuri blinked slowly, her mind trying to process what Shino had been saying.

…K~S

Temari smiled sweetly at Shikamaru from where they sat peacefully under a tree on a small hill away from the center of the village.

"I'm sorry I didn't come to see you this morning; my troublesome mother made me round up some of the deer on our property for one of my dads lame lab experiments."

"I understand," Temari said lightly. Usually she'd be on Shika's back all the time she was with him, wanting to do _something_ other than lay around all day. Yet after being so upset over not being able to see him and what not, she decided to be relaxed and pleasant.

And then tomorrow she'd wreak havoc.

…K~S

Matsuri rubbed her forehead, groaning at the beating her mind had taken. She was smart to a degree, but still she probably would end up failing any exam with questions like the ones Aburame had thrown at her.

"Um, i-it's my turn t-to help." Hinata spoke up, smiling lightly.

Matsuri nodded, pulling herself together and stood along with the others.

"T-try to land a blow on me." The soft spoken kunoichi said, moving into a strange stance that Matsuri was unfamiliar with.

Matsuri's hand instinctively went to her rope javelin. "Can I use a weapon?"

Hinata nodded, and smiled. "And I will be using my families Kekkai Genkai, i-if it's alright." Matsuri was slightly shaken to know that the girl had a bloodline limit, but sucked up her fear and nodded.

Hinata smiled, forming quick hand seals before settling on one. "Byakugan!"

…K~S

Temari leaned over to Shikamaru so he wouldn't have to stretch to kiss her. His lips were slow on hers, a sign of his laziness, and Temari slowed to match him. Surprisingly the kiss was enjoyable, even without breaking each other's jaws to win dominance over a whole-hearted kiss.

She felt Shika's hands move to her 4 spiky pig tails, snapping the ties off one by one until her soft blond hair brushed over her shoulders.

"I like your hair down, Shikamaru said, as if stating the weather.

"It practically blinds me whenever I use my fan." Temari explained, wrapping her arms around her man.

"Guess that makes sense."

"Enough talk…"

"Temari, what are you doing?"

Temari froze, yanking herself off Shikamaru to look up at her youngest brother standing a little ways away with his arms crossed.

Shikamaru looked very much afraid.

**AN: I love Shika, but I love Gaara more and I think Gaara could beat him, Naruto episode 58 anyone?**

"I was… I…" Temari blushed bright red, hoping her brother wouldn't try to be over protective and bludgeon Shikamaru.

Gaara closed his eyes and turned. He didn't have time to murder the ponytail wearing deer boy.

"Just tell Matsuri if you see her to meet me on top of the Hokage monument mountain." He said with a sigh.

Temari sighed in relief. "Sure thing little brother!" she called. Once he was out of sight and hearing range, and she made sure there were no Sand Third Eye's around, she dove back on top of her unexpecting boyfriend.

…K~S

Hinata stood up in a more casual stance after Matsuri plopped down tiredly, her robe javelin struggling to stay within her grasp.

"You held up for longer than I thought you would," Kiba spoke up. "For a twig you sure do have some fight."

Matsuri smiled. "Thank you Hinata, Shino, and Kiba." Akamaru barked. "And you too, Akamaru." Then she looked at Kiba. "AND I'M NOT A TWIG!"

"Anyway," Kiba said ignoring her. "It's getting late."

Matsuri snapped out of her upset and looked up at the red and orange sky with the brilliant yellow sun setting in the distance. In her heart someone called for her.

Smiling the sand kunoichi bowed to the Leaf team. "Thank you for helping me train. I'll be going now."

"Alright, see you sometime soon," Hinata said.

Kiba and Shino nodded.

Matsuri walked away, wondering where Gaara was. If she knew him, he'd be someplace at the summit. Grinning ear to ear she turned to the Hokage monument. On top she could see the barest outline of a standing figure.

_Gaara_.

**Let me explain this late chap: new high school, loss of motivation, more loss of motivation after I threw up in class my first day =[ I got sick this week and life isn't fair, but who said it was? **

**Anyway if you haven't read His Desert Rose, or type something like that in. Really good GaaraxMatsuri fic with consistent updates. Until next time in the near future I hope.**


	9. Chapter 9  Filler Chappy

**READ:** I'm having a really hard time figuring out how to get the former 9th chapter done, so this is like an extra or filler, thus it has no real connection to the main story.

**Read this too!:** Is centered on Sari and Ittetsu as little children (I'm not sure how young but they aren't in the ninja academy yet)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto but I _do_ own a keychain with my 2nd favorite Bleach character on it =D

Chapter 9: Toeto

A small girl sat on the swing, rocking back and forth slowly, unenthusiastically. It was a warm day and under the shade of a dry tree she felt cool. Playing soccer in the distance were a few kids she recognized from around her neighborhood.

Sari would have joined them had it not been so hot.

It was always hot in the desert. The dry sand that constantly swirled through the air made her squint and the high sun made her retreat to darkness. The girl had plenty of friends, but none of them ever seemed to hold her too closely. Sari assumed that it was because they'd all end up ninja, while she would struggle, an indolent girl who didn't know how to throw a kunai to save her life.

What she wouldn't give for a tight, life-long friend.

KS

Ittetsu kicked the ball hard, sending it towards the outlined soccer goal. The other teams goalie jumped out to catch the flying ball, but it went over his body and into the 'goal'.

Ittetsu's team clapped him on the back in appreciation. The sandy haired boy ignored them. They only liked him because he was good at soccer.

Ittetsu had always been a stubborn child, and it was that stubbornness that made him so good at sports, yet bad at making friends.

He found it hard to agree with the juvenile ideas of his soccer buddies, and he was quick to point out fouls made in other people. Basically he was annoying.

After he'd scored a few times more, the boy walked off to the tree, letting the weak link of his team sub for him. He headed over for the only shade in the area: under the old tree by the swing.

KS

"Watashi no naka ni iru etto, etto ne ettoeto-"

"What are you singing?"

Sari looked up as a boy her age walked up to sit on the roots of the tree trunk. The girl blushed.

Sari hated singing in front of people, even though she wasn't bad for a little child.

"U-uh… um, it's-"

"Spit it out!" Ittetsu snapped. He hated it when people stuttered and didn't get to the point.

**AN: I used to be the biggest stutterer! Haha, this Ittetsu hates the old me.**

"Toeto." Sari finally said, frowning softly being that her feelings were injured by the boys' sharp tone.

"That song's weird." Ittetsu decided.

"Is not!" Sari spoke up. Toeto was her favorite song so she would defend it viscously.

"It's stupid. And I don't understand it."

Sari smiled. "That's why you don't like it. Toeto is about a shy girl who is in love with another person. She doesn't know how to tell her feelings because her timidness; Toeto, is keeping her from doing so."

Ittetsu blanked. "Exactly what I said. It's stupid."

Puffing out her cheeks Sari mumbled the song under her breath. Stupid boy. Stupid boy!

Ittetsu watched girl kick the dusty ground as she grumbled the song.

"Watashi no naka no, ganbaru toeto." Ittetsu finished for her before standing. "You sing nice." He admitted shyly before running back to where his friends were playing soccer.

"Ganbaru toeto," Sari repeated softly.

**That was very short, I know, but I think this was cute. Here's what I think is the translation. Sorry if I'm wrong.**

Ganbaru toeto: I can do it ummuh

Watashi no naka no, ganbaru toeto: Deep down inside I can do it (not sure)

Watashi no naka ni iru etto, etto ne ettoeto: before I knew it I could feel her inside of me (Stutter)

**I love Toeto, which is a really cute – long – song by Megurine Luka.**

**Next chapter, if I can figure out how to finish it, will be longer and following GaaraxMatsuri and then after that will be a flashback chapter from the previous chapters and then the chapter after that will be Matsuri coming home. See, I've got everything planned out.**

**Also, if you haven't seen the new Naruto opening… I went crazy as I watched that! Shiver: me in a corner sucking my thumb. And what happened to Sai? Is it just me or does he have absolutely no part in Naruto? ALSO! Isn't it crazy that 'I' in English is the equivalent of 'Watashi' in Japanese?**

**Wish me luck on my Creative Writing assignment. I think I wrote too much: it's at 15 pages and I still have so much left to write! Until the next chappy – Keomi-Sage =D**


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